


And You Can Follow Me

by Illiad_And_Oddity



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, M/M, Werewolf Shiro (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-05 18:37:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 29,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15176846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Illiad_And_Oddity/pseuds/Illiad_And_Oddity
Summary: It's been a year and a half since Shiro disappeared, like he'd simply vanished into thin air, and Keith isn't handling it very well.  But when a three-legged stray dog shows up on his front porch, Keith takes him in, and everything changes.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Is it self-indulgent AU time?
> 
> Why, I do believe it is self-indulgent AU time!

At first glance, Keith thought the animal on his porch was a coyote.

It was morning, and as he opened his door to head out for work, he saw it curled up comfortably on the doormat. He yelled in shock and slammed the door closed. Despite what most of the people who knew him would say about how reckless and impulsive he was, Keith knew better than to risk tangling with a wild animal.

As he took a few deep breaths and wondered how to scare it off and if he would have to call Allura and tell her he’d be late for work, he heard a pitiful whining coming from outside. That didn’t sound like a coyote’s whine. It sounded like a dog.

Cautiously, he opened the door again, and looked down.

On second glance, the animal was pretty obviously a dog and not a coyote. It was a husky, Keith thought, mostly black with some white on its face and chest. It was missing its right front leg, and its fur was very unkempt, but it was looking up at Keith with what he would have sworn was a pleading expression. As Keith looked at it, the dog’s tail began to wag very cautiously.

“Hey,” Keith said softly, crouching down a little and holding his hand out for the dog to sniff, “You startled me there. Where’d you come from?”

The dog whined and pressed its nose into Keith’s hand, sniffing it excitedly. And then sneezed on it.

“Ew,” Keith said, and wiped his hand off on his jeans. The dog’s tail was wagging excitedly now.

“Where’s your owner -” he checked quickly “- boy?”

The dog tilted his head to the side, his ears perked up and tongue hanging out. He was clearly someone’s pet, he was far too friendly to just be a stray. Keith wondered if some jackass had dumped the poor animal on the side of the road. That happened out here sometimes, since Keith lived a good fifteen miles outside of the city limits. It had been a while since it had last happened, though. Shiro had always helped him find homes for them before…

He petted the dog on the scruff of his neck, combing his fingers through the thick fur to look for a collar. He didn’t find one, but the dog leaned into his petting so heavily he almost fell over.

Keith sighed and took his phone out of his pocket. He didn’t want to deal with this right now, he was already running kind of late, but the idea of just leaving a lost dog didn’t sit well with him.

He called the office phone, and Coran picked up on the second ring.

“Lions’ Auto and Truck Repair, Coran speaking.”

“Hey, Coran, it’s Keith,” Keith said, “Uh… I think I may need to be a little late to work today. There’s a lost dog on my porch. No collar. I don’t know if he got loose or if some asshole dumped him by the side of the road, but I need to take care of him before I can come in.”

“Alright, I’ll let Allura know,” Coran said cheerfully, “Besides, it’s not looking like this morning is going to be too busy.”

“Thanks,” Keith said, and hung up.

He looked at the dog and sighed, “Alright, let’s get you taken care of, boy.”

Keith brought the dog inside and gave him some water and some lunch meat that Keith had been planning to use for sandwiches. The dog seemed very happy, his tail wagging furiously as he ate, and when Keith showed his hands to prove that the food was all gone, the dog licked his fingers.

He looked up the nearest vet’s office and made an appointment for the evening, after he would get off work. He filled a large bowl with water and left it on the floor, and prepared to leave.

That was where he found he had a problem, because the dog didn’t seem to want to leave his side. If Keith made even a step toward the door, the dog would come with him, sticking so close Keith almost tripped over him more than once.

“I have to go to _work_!” Keith cried after the third time, exasperated, “You can’t come with me!”

The dog whined sadly.

“No! I work as a mechanic! The garage is loud and smelly and you’ll probably hate it!”

He didn’t know why he was explaining as if the dog could understand him. He was just a dumb animal, after all. But if the poor guy had been dumped on the side of the road, it made sense that he’d be freaked out about being left behind.

Keith understood all too well what it felt like to be left behind. First his mother, then his father, and then even Shiro… Losing Shiro had been the hardest of all, because he didn’t _know_. No one knew. His mother and father had both died in their respective lines of duty, as heroes. But Shiro… Shiro had just vanished, almost eighteen months ago to the day. The police had stopped searching after three months. They’d given up on him, assumed he was dead.

Keith refused to accept that he was. He knew everyone thought he was just in denial, but he could never give up on Shiro.

The dog was still looking at him with a pitiful expression. He let out a soft, almost mournful-sounding howl.

Keith hung his head in defeat, “Oh, alright, fine. Come on.”

He could probably just shut the dog in the office. Since someone was always in there to watch the desk, hopefully the poor guy wouldn’t freak out over being left alone.

He tied a loop in a piece of rope to make a quick leash, and took the dog with him to his car. The dog was obviously leash-trained, he didn’t pull at all.

It was ridiculous, but somehow, having the dog in the passenger seat while he drove to work made him feel less lonely than he had since before Shiro had disappeared.

To Keith’s surprise (and Allura’s, and all his coworkers’, too), the dog didn’t seem remotely bothered by the noise or smells of the garage. He resisted being put in the office, and didn’t let Keith get too far away from him, but somehow he never actually got in Keith’s way once while he was working.

“That dog really likes you, huh?” Hunk asked during their lunch break.

“I guess so,” Keith replied. He was eating a sandwich, and the dog’s head was on his knee, “He might just want food, though.”

“He’s not begging from anyone else, though,” Pidge pointed out.

That was true. While the dog was happy enough to take food from his coworkers if they offered it to him, he would return to Keith as soon as he’d finished the treat.

“He needs a name,” Hunk said.

Keith had been thinking that, too, but the only name that was coming to mind was one he didn’t want to admit out loud. “He probably already has one.”

“Yeah, but you can’t just call him ‘the dog’ forever. How about… Black?”

Pidge snorted. “Real creative, Hunk.”

“Just a suggestion.”

Keith shook his head, “I’ll worry about it later. I mean, he might have an owner who’s looking for him, who’s going to be really happy to get him back.”

The dog shoved his nose under Keith’s hand, and Keith scratched his ears. He tried not to think about how disappointed he’d be if the dog did have an owner, and Keith had to give him back. It was ridiculous, considering that he’d been taking care of the dog for a grand total of four hours so far, but…

He shook his head. He’d deal with what happened when it happened.

The visit to the vet’s office was easy enough, although it made him uncomfortable the way everyone stared at him, the three-legged dog, and the makeshift leash he’d made out of a rope, even though his dog was by far the best-behaved one in the waiting room. He felt like they were all judging him.

When the vet called him into an exam room, he explained everything about how he’d found the dog to her. He had explained on the phone this morning, of course, but he didn’t like the idea of the vet thinking he was an awful, irresponsible dog owner who couldn’t even be bothered to get a proper leash.

“Can you lift him up on the exam table for me?” the vet, Dr. Ryner, asked. She patted the table as she asked and the dog perked up his ears. Keith started to reach down to lift him up, but the dog jumped up onto the table.

Dr. Ryner looked as surprised as Keith felt, “Goodness, he’s obviously been well-trained. Alright, sweetheart, let’s take a look at you. What a good boy.”

She cooed and petted him all during the exam, and the dog stayed very calm, looking pleased at the attention. She checked his eyes, ears and teeth, the stump of his leg, and looked for a microchip. Keith was pleased when she didn’t find one.

“Well, he appears to be in pretty good health,” she said, as she finished her examination, “He’s probably three or four years old. He looks like a husky, but he’s definitely not purebred, he’s too big and his head is the wrong shape for a husky. I’m not sure how long he was running wild before you found him, but it was probably at least a week or two.”

“Any idea what happened to his leg?” Keith asked.

“Well, it’s an amputation and not a birth defect, so obviously he was badly injured at some point,” she said, “But how it happened, I can only guess. Maybe he was hit by a car, that’s frequently how large dogs get hurt. It looks like it was a while ago, though, and he’s healed and adjusted just fine to being a tripod.” She made a note on her clipboard.

“Other than that… He’s a little underweight, and could use a trip to a groomer to get those mats out of his fur. Without a microchip, there’s not much of a chance of finding the original owner, but we can put a picture up online and see if anyone recognizes him. If you’re not interested in keeping him, I can put you in touch with some local rescue groups -”

“No, that’s fine,” Keith said quickly, “I’ll keep – I’m definitely going to keep him if we can’t find his original owner.”

And if his original owner had dumped him on the side of the road, Keith wouldn’t give him back. The dog looked at him and Keith would have sworn he looked relieved.

Dr. Ryner smiled at him, “That’s good. He seems to have bonded with you already.”

She gave him a list of things he would need, things to watch out for health-wise, made a few notes on her chart, and then innocently asked a question that made Keith feel very put on the spot – though she could have had no idea that it did or why it would.

“And do you have a name for him yet?” she asked, pen in hand as she went over the clipboard.

“I was thinking… um, I was kind of thinking of calling him Shiro,” Keith said softly, feeling a little stupid as he said it out loud. The dog’s ears perked up at the name.

“It’s my best friend’s name,” Keith explained, though Dr. Ryner hadn’t asked him for an explanation.

“That’s sweet, naming your dog after your best friend,” she said absently, writing it down, “Alright, Mr. Kogane, just one more thing. We don’t have his records, so I would _strongly_ advise you get him the rabies vaccine before you leave today. Everything else can wait for a later appointment, but that’s not one you want to risk.”

Keith agreed, and Shiro continued to prove himself to be the best behaved dog Keith had ever seen, holding still for the rabies shot and only whimpering a little bit when the needle was put in.

“What a good boy you are, Shiro,” Dr. Ryner said, petting him. She took a dog treat out of a jar on the desk and offered it to him, “Here you go, you definitely earned it.”

Shiro took the dog treat from her hand very gently and laid down on the exam table to eat it.

“That covers it for today,” she said, petting Shiro again, “Please feel free to call me if you have any questions or concerns.”

As he left the vet's office, Keith did a quick search on his phone for the nearest pet store, and drove there with the windows down so that Shiro could stick his nose out. At the store he loaded the cart up with supplies; a big bag of dog food, a couple of dog bowls, a bag of treats, a dog bed, some chew toys, a leash and a collar. He got a tag for the collar engraved, with Shiro’s name on one side and Keith’s name and phone number on the other.

Back in the car, he put the collar on Shiro’s neck, and had a ridiculous, fleeting thought about whether or not someone would have found the human Shiro and brought him back to Keith if he’d had a tag like that.

“Maybe with this you’ll be a Shiro I won’t lose,” he mumbled, embarrassed to be saying something like that out loud, even just to a dog.

Shiro whined, and it almost sounded like Keith’s name. Keith smiled and scratched him under the chin, “Good boy. Let’s go home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is already written and just needs to be edited. It should be up in a few days!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god, the feedback on chapter 1 was fantastic, thank you all so much! I'd forgotten what a joy it was to write for an active fandom instead of a mostly-dead one. It encouraged me to get the editing for this chapter done, so have the second chapter one day later as a thank you for being fantastic!

Keith got used to having Shiro around so quickly and easily that after barely more than a week, he had trouble remembering how he’d spent his days without a dog around. Shiro completely ignored the dog bed Keith had gotten him, preferring to sleep on the old futon next to Keith. It was like having a really big heating pad on his bed, and Keith appreciated it. It could get cold in the desert at night, especially since his house wasn’t exactly well-insulated, and a nice warm dog curled up against his back was better than any blanket.

Shiro was an energetic dog, so frequent walks were a necessity. Keith’s house was a one-room cabin, really too small for such a large dog, but it was on the ten-acre plot of land that he’d inherited from his parents, so there was room for Shiro to run. He wondered if he should look into getting the property fenced, but quickly dropped the idea. Too expensive. At least the walks got Keith out of the house regularly for things other than just going to work.

Shiro still got freaked out if it looked like Keith was going to leave him behind, so Keith had just given in and started taking Shiro with him wherever he went. Separation anxiety, Dr. Ryner had said when he called to ask advice. Dogs who’d been abandoned usually had it, and there wasn’t much to do but patient until the dog calmed down and learned that he wasn’t going to be abandoned again.

It wasn’t like bringing Shiro everywhere was much of a problem; he was the best-behaved dog Keith had ever met. For some reason, he stayed calm when Keith had to tie his leash to a railing to go into the grocery store, and sat patiently outside until Keith was done. He came back outside to find Shiro being petted by a kid. Keith had a few minutes conversation with him about Shiro, and the kid pulled out his phone and showed Keith pictures of his three dogs.

Another time he met a woman walking a beagle, and had a nice conversation with her while their dogs played. Shiro was very gentle with the smaller dog.

Keith was amazed by how much that kind of brief interaction lifted his spirits. He hadn’t realized just how fucking _lonely_ he had been.

Even at work, he was realizing how little he’d just talked to his coworkers. Allura didn’t mind him bringing Shiro to the garage with him, especially once she’d seen how well behaved he was. Shiro was friendly and so smart they joked he could understand English. Lance had even suggested they train Shiro to fetch tools for them, but Keith vetoed that idea. Not because he didn’t think Shiro could be taught to do it, but because he thought that Shiro putting his mouth on things in the shop that were covered with engine grease and oil and other things would make him sick.

No one had commented on his decision to name the dog Shiro, but they hadn’t commented in a pointed way that said a lot more than words did.

He wondered if they thought it meant Keith was giving up, accepting that Shiro was gone for good.

Once he had that thought, it wouldn’t let go of him. When he left work that day, instead of driving home, he turned onto the dirt road that led up the hill overlooking the town. He didn’t go all the way up to the overlook, though. His destination was a spot about halfway up, a place he’d avoided for a year and a half.

It was the last place he’d seen Shiro. The last place _anyone_ had seen him, as they’d found during the investigation. The hill was a popular spot for dirt biking, and he and Shiro had been all up and down it that afternoon, Keith showing off his best tricks, and Shiro looking just as impressed as if he hadn’t seen them a hundred times before, as if he hadn’t been the one to teach Keith half of those tricks.

Keith had to leave first that afternoon, and Shiro had stayed behind. They’d planned to see a movie the next day. It had all been so _ordinary_ , and if Keith had had any idea that it would be the last time he would see Shiro, he would have...

What? Not left him alone? Grabbed him and kissed him and confessed that he was head over heels for Shiro? Told him that he’d been in love with him ever since he was a teenager?

They had found Shiro’s bike out here. No signs of a struggle or anything amiss, just his bike parked behind a rocky outcropping, a little bit off the regular course, his helmet and his jacket sitting on the seat. They never found Shiro.

Keith parked on the side of the road and got out of the car. The dog followed him, and Keith didn’t even bother to clip his leash to his collar. At this point he knew that Shiro wasn’t going to run off, and there was no one around to get freaked out by seeing a large dog off-leash.

Shiro fell into stride beside him, but Keith was only half paying attention. He felt like he was walking through a fog, but he remembered the precise spot to go even though he’d only been here once.

Keith reached the spot where Shiro’s bike had been found and he stopped, staring. Shiro let out a concerned whine – probably wondering why the walk had stopped – and Keith felt the strength go out of his legs. His knees hit the ground, and Shiro ran up to him, sniffing at his face and whining. Keith wrapped his arms around the dog’s neck and hugged him tightly.

“I miss him,” Keith said, feeling tears he’d never let himself shed pricking his eyes, “I miss him so fucking much. Everyone thinks he’s dead and maybe they’re right but I can’t accept that. He never gave up on me, so I won’t give up on him. I’ve got to _know_ , but I don’t, and -” he took a deep, gasping breath and let Shiro go “- And I don’t know why I’m telling _you_ this. You’re a dog, I don’t think you can help me find Shiro.”

Shiro’s ears perked up at the sound of his name, and he licked Keith’s face, making him let out a startled laugh.

“Good dog,” he said, petting him, “You’re good at cheering me up.”

He didn’t know why he felt so much better just from having his dog lick his face, but he did. It had surprised him out of his mood.

Shiro wagged his tail, and barked excitedly. Keith reached for him and Shiro darted a few steps away, ducking into a bow, his tail wagging.

“Oh, you want to play, huh?” Keith grinned, and Shiro barked again. Keith got to his feet.

Shiro ran down the hill, and Keith chased him, laughing. Even on three legs, the dog was fast, but he only stayed just out of Keith’s reach like they were playing a game of keep-away. At the bottom of the hill, Shiro stopped and waited, and Keith was able to catch him by the collar. Shiro squirmed and whined and Keith laughed at him.

He clipped Shiro’s leash to his collar and Shiro fell into stride next to him. The sun was going down, but the moon was half full and night was the best time to give Shiro a long walk. Neither of them would overheat.

They walked leisurely over the dusty ground, and Keith let Shiro take the lead and go where he wanted. Occasionally he would stop to sniff things, but for the most part he just walked on, looking alert.

After about a half hour of walking, Shiro stopped by a scrub bush and began to sniff it more excitedly than he had anything else. Keith didn’t really pay attention, assuming that the dog was just getting ready to do his business, but Shiro started whining urgently so he looked down.

There was something under the bush, and his dog was nosing it. Curious, Keith knelt to look. It was a big rock, but underneath it was something made of cloth.

He picked up the heavy rock and realized that what he was looking at was a folded shirt. It was dirty and faded, and had clearly been there a long time, but whoever had put it there had folded it. Cautiously, Keith picked up the shirt. Underneath was a pair of folded black jeans, equally weathered, and underwear and a pair of socks, too.

“What the fuck?” he said out loud. Who on earth would leave a set of neatly folded clothes under a rock under a bush in the desert? He unfolded the shirt, peering at the faded design.

It was a winged lion.

Keith dropped it like he had been burned. He recognized that design. This was _Shiro’s_ shirt. It was the shirt Shiro had been wearing the day he went missing, and Keith remembered it clearly because Shiro had looked ridiculously good in it, and Keith had made fun of him for his taste in cheesy fantasy art to cover the way he kept staring.

For the second time that evening, the strength went out of his legs and he sat down on the ground. Shiro whined at him. Absently, Keith put his hand on the dog’s scruff and petted him, still staring at the shirt.

“What happened to you, Shiro?” he asked, “You took off your clothes and walked into the desert... _naked_?”

Shiro made a weird noise between a bark and a howl, and tried to climb into Keith’s lap. He was too big to fit, and just ended up pushing Keith over. Keith let himself be pushed, and laid flat on his back in the dirt, staring up at the darkening sky, his mind a whirl of thoughts.

The police had said they searched for Shiro. They said they had gotten a couple of K9s to search the desert for him and had come up empty handed. But Keith’s dog, who he was pretty sure was not a trained search dog, had just found Shiro’s clothes barely a half hour’s walk away from where he’d last been seen. The clothes had been under a rock, sure, but they weren’t exactly hidden. Keith didn’t know how exactly a police search worked, but if it was halfway competent shouldn’t they have found Shiro’s clothes? He could still see the lights of town from here.

“This doesn’t add up,” Keith told Shiro, who was now laying across his chest and looking down at him with concern. He made his weird barking howl again, and whined.

“What’s that, Lassie? Timmy’s stuck in the well?” Keith asked.

Shiro went quiet and looked at him, and Keith would’ve sworn it was the exact same unimpressed look the human Shiro would have given him for such a lame joke.

He pushed the dog off his chest and got back to his feet, gathering up Shiro’s clothes. He didn’t know what this meant, but he wasn’t going to leave them out here. It would feel wrong. He walked back to the car deep in thought, and drove home with his mind still reeling.

~ ~ ~

It took Keith hours to get to sleep that night, and when he finally did sleep, it wasn’t restful. He couldn’t remember the details of his dreams, but he knew they had been about Shiro being close by and Keith not being able to reach him. When he woke up in the morning to his dog’s desperate whining to go outside, it took a herculean effort to drag himself out of bed.

A short walk and two cups of coffee later, and Keith felt almost awake, although still emotionally drained.

He still didn’t know what the hell he was supposed to do about what he had learned last night. He didn’t know if there was anything he _could_ do. Take the clothes to the police? Yeah, like that would do anything. Back when he’d first reported Shiro missing, they had taken him in for questioning. He’d been in that room for an hour, answering their questions and giving them every detail he could remember before he’d realized that they suspected _him_ of having done it. With the way he had flipped his lid at that, he was really fucking lucky that he hadn’t gotten arrested; it was probably only because the police chief Kolivan had known his mom.

He sighed into the coffee cup and looked down at Shiro, lying on the floor at his feet. Yeah, no way was he going through that bullshit again.

“I am glad you found that stuff,” he said to the dog, who looked up at him, “Even if it’s going to leave me fucked up for days…”

Shiro whined, sounding almost apologetic.

“It’s not _your_ fault. I’m just really messed up about him still. I just… I just want to _know_ what happened to him. I won’t believe he’s dead until I see the body.”

Shiro stood up and walked over to Keith, putting his head on his knee and letting out a huge sigh. Keith smiled and rubbed his head. “You’re lucky, you know. It’s gotta be easy to be a dog. As long as you get food and pets, you’re happy.”

Shiro looked up at him. His dark eyes were almost the same color as the human Shiro’s, and as Keith realized that, he felt tears forming in his own eyes.

“I never told him,” Keith said softly, “I was too scared.”

Shiro made a questioning noise.

“I never told him how much I loved him. And if he’s really gone… I’ll never be able to.”

Keith folded his arms on the table, laid his head down on them, and tried not to cry. He had to leave for work soon, and if he cried and went in with his face all red and blotchy, someone would ask what was wrong and he didn’t think he could handle that.

Shiro was whining at him, his paw on Keith’s leg, and Keith sat up again and petted him reassuringly. Even if Shiro couldn’t understand what was wrong, he could obviously tell Keith was upset.

“It’s okay, boy, I’ll be fine, don’t worry.” He got to his feet with a sigh. “Time for work.”

Shiro usually got excited at those words, and would run over to the door eagerly waiting for Keith to clip his leash on so they could go. But instead, he stayed where he was and whined at Keith.

Keith squatted to look the dog in the eye and scratched behind his ears with both hands, “I’m okay, Shiro. I promise. Come on, let’s go for a car ride.”

Shiro walked to the door and sat patiently while Keith put his leash on, but he seemed subdued for the entire drive to the garage, and Keith wasn’t sure why. It worried him. Shiro seemed good at reading Keith's moods, sure, and Keith had been upset, but surely Shiro shouldn’t keep worrying about him for that long?

He arrived at the shop to find Lance half underneath a car, doing an oil change. Though Lance was primarily a tow truck driver and not a mechanic, he would take routine maintenance jobs like that if it was busy or they were short-handed. Lance doing an oil change at 9:15 suggested that they were going to be having a very busy day.

Keith didn’t mind so much. Being busy meant less time for him to dwell on his thoughts, and less chance that someone would notice his strange mood and ask him if anything was wrong. When conversation with his coworkers was limited to things like “pass me the socket wrench” Keith counted it as a good day. Or at least it had been. He’d been talking to them a lot more in the last week, and he felt like he was being conspicuously quiet now.

By the time lunch rolled around, though, Keith was feeling a lot calmer, and Shiro seemed to be back to normal, too. He rested his head on Keith’s knee and stared up at him while he ate, and eagerly took the last bit of Keith’s sandwich when Keith offered it to him.

“You’d think I’d never ever fed you, you beggar,” Keith said affectionately, scratching Shiro under the chin.

Shiro licked his hand, and Keith laughed, “Oh, did you miss some molecules of food?”

“We should have gotten you a therapy dog ages ago,” Lance said, looking up from his own lunch, take out from the Chinese restaurant down the street, “I’ve seen you smile at him more in the last week than you’ve smiled at anything in the last year. It’s kind of wigging me out, y’know.”

Keith rolled his eyes, “I just don’t smile at you ‘cause you’re usually being obnoxious.”

“Lance is right, though,” Allura said from the desk, “It’s good to see you happy. You’re starting to seem like your old self.”

Keith didn’t know how to reply to that. He knew that they both believed Shiro was dead, so he didn’t think he wanted to bring up having found some kind of clue in the desert. It would just make them worry about him again. And they’d probably suggest he take it to the police, which wouldn’t help for shit.

He got to his feet, balled up the paper bag he’d had his sandwich in, and threw it over Lance’s head to the trash can. He missed, and it bounced off the edge of the can and to the floor. Shiro ran over and grabbed the ball of paper, and brought it back to Keith with his tail wagging. He dropped it at Keith’s feet and looked up at him expectantly.

Keith burst out laughing.

“Holy shit, I didn’t know you _could_ laugh!” Lance exclaimed.

Keith rolled his eyes at him, and bent to pet Shiro’s head.

“No, Shiro, I wasn’t playing fetch with you,” he said, still chuckling. He picked up the paper and walked over to the trash can to throw it away, “Guess I should get some tennis balls for us to play with.”

Shiro barked playfully at him, and Keith patted him again, “Good boy.”

By the time he finished work for the day and went home, Keith was feeling much better. He was still confused about what finding Shiro’s clothes meant, but he was less upset than he had been. It was a piece of the puzzle. He just had to put the rest of it together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, if anyone wants to know what Shiro's shirt looked like, the design I had in mind is [this one.](https://www.windwolf.com/store/p114/Guardian_of_the_Sun.html)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter: Keith sits around waiting for a long time, Shiro is Good but Worried, and my absolute love for my sunshine boy Hunk shows through.

“Mommy, that man has a wolf!”

Keith turned to see a little girl, no more than maybe six or seven at the oldest, pointing at him and Shiro. He laughed, “No, he’s not a wolf, he’s a dog. His name is Shiro.”

It was Keith’s lunch break, and he’d made a habit of giving Shiro a walk during lunch each day. The garage was near an apartment complex with a small park, so he would usually walk Shiro there. People would frequently notice Shiro and talk to him, and while Keith normally didn’t like to make conversation with strangers, when it was about his dog he didn’t mind.

He’d had Shiro for over a month now, and almost every day, Keith was grateful that the big, friendly dog had found his way to Keith’s porch. Allura was right, Shiro was good for him.

The little girl looked skeptical as only a small child could, “He looks like a wolf.”

“He’s very friendly,” Keith replied. He couldn’t exactly argue that Shiro didn’t look like a wolf.

“Can I pet him?” the girl asked, looking at her mom.

“If the man says you can,” her mother replied with a smile, “Remember, we never pet dogs we don’t know without asking their owners first.”

The little girl looked back to Keith, “Can I pet your dog?”

“Yes, you can. Shiro, sit.”

Shiro sat and held still as the little girl came up and very shyly patted his head. He was always well behaved when people petted him, and it seemed like he liked the attention.

“What happened to his leg?” she asked.

“I don’t know. He was missing it when I got him.”

She asked a few more questions, and even got Shiro to do a few tricks – Keith handed her a dog treat to give to Shiro as a reward. After a couple of minutes, the girl’s mother thanked him for letting her play with his dog, and they left. As they were walking away, he heard the girl say, “I bet that he’s a wolf from a circus and that’s why he’s so well trained!”

Keith laughed to himself as he headed back to the garage. Adorable.

Pidge was watching the office when he came back in, her computer science homework spread out in front of her. Keith didn’t know how she managed to balance a full course load with working part-time at the garage, but she had been doing it for three semesters so far and never seemed like she was burning out.

“So apparently Shiro is a circus wolf,” he said with a laugh.

She looked up at him, bewildered, “What?”

“We just met this kid who decided Shiro must have come from a circus, because he’s so well-trained.”

“Oh,” Pidge laughed, “Cute. Although, y’know, I’ve actually been wondering if he’s got some wolf in him. I mean more than all dogs do by definition. He looks more like a wolf than a husky.”

“Why do you say that?” asked Keith. Shiro looked like a dog to him.

“It’s his general body shape,” Pidge said, “Wolves have a pointed snout like that, and his back slopes like a wolf’s. He _acts_ like he’s a hundred percent dog, though.”

“Well, maybe some day if I ever have a burning curiosity and the money to spare, I’ll get one of those genetic tests done for him,” Keith patted Shiro’s head, “But I don’t really care what precise mix of breeds he is.”

“Who cares if he’s half husky or quarter chihuahua, when we know he’s a purebred Good Boy, right?” Pidge said with a smile. She opened the desk drawer, pulled out the bag of dog treats that was now permanently stored in there, and tossed one to Shiro. He caught it in midair.

“Exactly,” Keith replied, and unclipped Shiro’s leash from his collar. He hung it up on the coat rack that they almost never used for coats, and headed into the garage.

Shiro remained by the desk while Pidge petted him and gave him a second dog treat. His separation anxiety had gotten better over the last month, and he no longer needed to be within ten feet of Keith at all times. He would even sometimes nap on the floor of the office while Keith was in the garage working, on top of the air conditioner vent. Keith guessed it was because he brought him every day, so Shiro was comfortable enough at Lions’ garage to relax and not feel the need to keep Keith in his sights at every second.

Keith’s next work order was a delivery truck that had been brought in for a rattling noise somewhere in the engine. He opened the hood and stepped up onto the front bumper of the truck to take a look inside.

He felt the bumper shift under his foot, but noticed it too late for him to jump down safely. It fell off the truck completely and Keith fell too. He tried to catch himself, but his grip slipped and he felt a piece of sharp metal slice painfully into his wrist and hand.

His feet hit the ground, and he tripped over the bumper. He landed on his ass and elbows, mercifully managing to keep his head from hitting the floor as well, and he cursed at the top of his lungs, “ _Son of a bitch – fuck!_ ”

He looked at his arm, and immediately knew it had been a bad call. The gash was about four inches long, a shallow slice on his wrist, but it had gone deep into the meat of his palm, tearing right through his glove. It was bleeding badly, and seemed to hurt worse when he looked at it.

“Keith, oh my god, are you okay?” Hunk cried, running over to him. He took Keith’s hand and pulled it away from where he was holding it protectively close to his body.

“Caught my hand,” Keith said through gritted teeth, “Fuck!”

Hunk peeled Keith’s glove off and winced when he saw the cut. “Oh, that looks nasty. Come on, office, we need to clean that up.”

“What happened?!” Pidge asked as Hunk and Keith came back into the office. Shiro started whining in distress immediately.

“The bumper fell, I fell, caught my hand on something sharp in the engine,” Keith explained through gritted teeth, “Son of a _bitch_ that hurts.”

Hunk sat Keith down on a chair and went to grab the first aid kit. Shiro ran over to Keith, whining, and started to lick the wound. Keith hissed in pain, but it he didn’t try to stop Shiro. It felt a _little_ bit better than just sitting there bleeding.

Hunk came back with the first aid kit and pushed Shiro out of the way, roughly enough that the dog yelped in protest and Keith yelled, “Hey!”

“Sorry,” Hunk said, “But you shouldn’t let him lick it, you’re already risking a nasty infection. Just let me see that hand.”

Keith held still as Hunk rinsed the cut with bottled water, and yelped when he started to put antiseptic on the wound. He pressed a piece of folded gauze to it and ordered Keith to hold his hand above his head.

“This is really deep,” Hunk said, “You’re going to need stitches. Pidge, can you let Allura know? I’ll take Keith to the ER.”

“Fuck.” Keith hated hospitals, but he knew Hunk was right. The bleeding wasn’t showing any signs of slowing down yet.

He looked at Shiro, who was whining still, and looking incredibly upset. He knew there was no way that a hospital would let him take a dog that wasn’t a registered service animal into the emergency room.

“I’ll look after Shiro,” Pidge said, as if she’d read his mind. She bent down to pet him and spoke soothingly, “It’s okay, boy, Keith’s going to be fine. You’ll be fine, too.”

Hunk helped Keith to his feet and ushered him to the door. Shiro didn’t resist when Pidge held onto his collar to keep him from following, but he whined pathetically, and it made Keith feel like his heart was breaking.

“It's okay, I’ll be back soon, Shiro,” he promised.

~ ~ ~

‘Soon’ turned out to be a little optimistic, because Keith didn’t get out of the hospital for almost seven hours. He sat in the ER waiting room for over an hour and a half before they finally called him back to an exam room to get the wound properly cleaned and stitched. After the stitches, the doctor gave him a prescription for antibiotics and one for painkillers, and then the wait at the pharmacy took another five fucking hours.

Hunk, who was a wonderful friend that Keith was realizing he _really_ never gave enough credit to, helped him by holding his hand up to reduce the swelling, chatting with him to keep him distracted from the pain, and going to the little cafe in the lobby to get him a turkey wrap for dinner when Keith started to get visibly pissed off by the long wait.

“This should be easy to eat with one hand!” Hunk said cheerfully, handing it to him, “And I got you some water and ibuprofen, too, since they’re taking forever getting you the good stuff.”

“Thanks, Hunk. I really owe you one.”

“What are friends for?” Hunk asked, “Eat up, everything’s easier to deal with when you’re not hungry.”

And to think Keith had just thought of Hunk as a work friend, and not someone he was particularly close to. He was going to have to do something really spectacular as a thank-you gift for him, because just saying it was obviously inadequate. Maybe cover his shifts for a week so he could go on vacation with his girlfriend? That might do it.

By the time they finally left the hospital, Keith was exhausted, but a lot less cranky than he would have been without Hunk around being a general ray of sunshine. Still, all he wanted was to go back to the garage to pick up his dog, then go home to collapse in his bed for the next fourteen hours.

The shop was closed for the evening by the time they got back, but Coran was still there and opened the door for them when they arrived. Keith didn’t have time to say a word to him before he was almost bowled over by Shiro, barking and whining and trying to lick his face all at once.

“Hey, boy, hey,” he said, trying to pet Shiro to calm him down, “I came back. It’s okay. Settle down.”

His words had no effect, so Keith gave in and sat down on the floor to let Shiro jump all over him to his heart’s content. He hadn’t been apart from Keith for more than a few minutes at a time since he’d shown up on Keith’s doorstep, and he must have thought that he had been abandoned again.

“Yeah, yeah, I love you too, Shiro. Calm down. I’m fine, I didn’t abandon you.” It was nice to be able to see how much his dog loved him, though. Keith hugged Shiro around the neck and hauled him into his lap, “Easy, boy, easy.”

Shiro was settling down a little as Keith petted him, though he still kept trying to lick Keith’s face.

“Poor Shiro was very worried while you were gone,” Coran said, “All he did was stare out the window and whine occasionally. I couldn’t even get him to take a dog treat!”

“We’ll go home and I’ll get his dinner,” Keith said. He kissed Shiro on the top of his head, between the ears, and got back to his feet.

“Don’t worry about coming in for a few days, alright?” said Coran cheerfully, “You’ll need to let that hand heal before you do any more work.”

“Are you gonna be okay to drive yourself home?” Hunk asked, looking at Keith’s bandaged hand.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. It’s not like I’ve got a broken bone or anything. And I haven’t taken any of the heavy-duty painkillers yet, either.” Keith couldn’t help but yawn, “I’m just tired.”

“Okay, but you be sure to give me a call if you need anything. Got it?”

Keith smiled and nodded, “Yeah. Thanks, Hunk. You’re a good friend, you know that?”

Shiro jumped up and put his front paw on Hunk’s stomach. He barked, and Keith laughed. “Shiro agrees with me.”

“No hard feelings, right boy?” Hunk asked, scratching Shiro behind the ears, “You make sure your human takes care of himself, you got it?”

Shiro wagged his tail, and Keith would have sworn it looked like he nodded.

“Come on, Shiro, let’s go home,” said Keith, and Shiro barked eagerly.

It was uncomfortable to grip the steering wheel properly with his injured hand – he could feel the stitches pulling whenever he flexed his hand and it was bizarre and he _did not like it_ – but Keith didn’t have any real trouble driving home. It was almost dark by the time he got to the house, and the moon was full and starting to rise.

Shiro seemed particularly restless, and probably deserved a nice long walk, but Keith didn’t have the energy to give him one. Shiro resisted a bit at the door, whining softly, but when Keith tugged on his leash, he followed him inside.

Keith filled up Shiro’s food dish, and sat down on the futon with a sigh. He’d spent most of the last seven hours sitting on his ass, but he was so exhausted. Hospitals stressed him out so badly, and being in pain didn’t help, either.

Shiro ignored the dog food and stood by the door, whining at him.

“No, Shiro, I’m sorry. I’m just too tired right now.”

Shiro growled.

“Look, I promise I’ll give you a nice long walk tomorrow, but I really just need to rest right now,” said Keith, feeling a little guilty even as he said it. Shiro was used to a walk every night, and the day had already been enough of a disturbance in his routine, but the idea of getting up and taking him for a walk kind of made Keith want to die.

Shiro went over to the window, whining almost frantically. He grabbed the curtain in his teeth, and pulled on it.

“Shiro, what are you doing?” Keith cried, getting to his feet to stop him. Was this some kind of dog temper tantrum over not getting his walk?

Before he could get to the window, though, Shiro let go of the curtain. He had pulled it open, and he turned around to look at Keith. He looked different, though Keith couldn’t find words to describe how. The moonlight coming through the window made Shiro’s fur almost seem to shimmer, and the way he met Keith’s gaze felt… strange.

Shiro started to shiver violently, his fur rippling. Then he started to convulse, and Keith was at his side in an instant.

“Shiro!” Keith yelled, terrified that his dog was having some kind of seizure. He was even more terrified when Shiro went completely still. “Shiro!”

Then he let out a painful-sounding howl… and _changed_. His snout grew shorter and his fur seemed to recede into his skin, and it happened so fast that Keith’s brain couldn’t keep up with what his eyes were seeing.

With a final, full-body shudder, what collapsed on the floor was a person. A very human, very naked man, missing an arm where the dog had been missing a leg.

He rolled onto his back and looked up at Keith with a warm, affectionate look that had been seared into Keith’s soul years ago.

With a voice that was a little raspy and harsh from disuse, but still gentle and caring, he said, “Keith.”

“Shiro?” Keith breathed, not sure if he dared to believe what his eyes were seeing.

“Keith,” Shiro said again, “I’m back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, writing this fic: Yeah, this seems like a good spot to end the chapter.
> 
> Next chapter will be up in a few days, in which some questions will get answered and the fic may just earn its rating.
> 
> Thank you guys so much for all the comments and kudos, they give me life!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is long, but somehow I feel like y'all aren't going to complain. Some questions get answered, and new ones are raised.
> 
> (What _is_ a werewolf's average resting heart rate?)

Keith couldn’t speak. He could barely even _breathe_ , and he knew his mouth was hanging open, but he couldn’t move. Shiro looked different. Older, with a prominent scar across his nose and streak of white in his hair. He had never exactly been skinny, but he’d gotten more muscular since the last time Keith had seen him.

Shiro sat up, looking at him with concern. “Please say something.”

“How…?” Keith gasped, “What happened to you?”

“I was stuck in that form. I couldn’t change back.”

Keith thought he was beginning to understand, even though not even five minutes ago he would have said it was impossible. But he had to ask. “Shiro, what _are_ you?”

Shiro looked away, nervous, and said, “I’m… I’m a werewolf, Keith.”

Keith had never really believed in supernatural stuff, but he couldn’t say it wasn’t real when he had just watched his dog turn into a human in front of him.

His dog.

“Oh my god,” he said, “You were – this whole time – _I treated you like a pet!_ ”

He had petted Shiro and made him do tricks for dog treats and played fetch with him and kissed his head and even _cooed at him in baby talk_. Keith hid his face in his hands, suddenly humiliated.

“ _That’s_ what you’re worried about?” Shiro said in disbelief, “Not the – y’know, the whole _werewolf_ thing?”

Okay, maybe he had a point, but...

“You’re still you.”

“Keith,” Shiro’s voice was very gentle, and he put his hand on Keith’s wrist, “Look at me. Please.”

Keith lowered his hands and looked up at Shiro. His gaze was filled with so much love that it made Keith’s chest ache, but he couldn’t have looked away.

Keith hugged him. He threw his arms around Shiro’s neck and hugged him like he would never have another chance. He still had a million questions, but he could worry about them _later_ , because Shiro was back, and holding him tightly. Keith let one hand trail down Shiro’s back, tracing his soft skin, feeling scars there...

Oh. Shiro was still naked.

Keith pulled back, blushing, “I, uh… your clothes. They’re in the drawer.”

It wasn’t as if he didn’t _like_ having Shiro naked in his arms, but they needed to talk a bit more – a lot more – before anything else happened.

“Right, I remember.” Of course he did, he had been there when Keith had washed them and put them away as if they were precious family heirlooms.

“I’ll get them for you.” Keith got to his feet and hurried to his dresser. It felt easier to talk when he wasn’t looking directly at Shiro, so he asked, “So, uh… what exactly were you doing? When – when I last saw you?”

“It was the full moon,” Shiro answered, “I had all this restless energy to work out. I usually deal with it by running around in the desert, maybe chasing a jackrabbit or something like that.”

“And your clothes?”

“It was really windy that day, so I folded them and put a rock on top to keep them from blowing away before I got back. It obviously worked. No idea what happened to my shoes, though.”

Keith found Shiro’s clothes in the drawer, exactly where he’d put them. He pulled them out and turned back to Shiro, who was still sitting on the floor. Keith thought he was still the most attractive man he’d ever seen, but those scars, and the missing arm… Shiro looked as though he’d been through seven miles of hell.

“What happened to you?” asked Keith.

Shiro looked toward the window, face turned toward the moonlight, “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean _I don’t know_ , Keith!” he snapped, but immediately winced, and curled in on himself as he said, “I don’t remember a single thing that happened to me between the day I disappeared and two months ago. I woke up in a pile of garbage outside of Flagstaff, and I was missing a leg and it was night and the moon was full and shining right on me but I was stuck. I couldn’t feel the moonlight and I couldn’t change.”

He put his hand over his face, “I don’t know what happened to me, and that scares the hell out of me.”

Keith dropped the clothes, knelt next to Shiro and hugged him again. Shiro was trembling a bit, so slightly that if Keith hadn’t been holding him he was sure he wouldn’t have noticed.

“I only found out how long it had been because I saw a billboard with the date on it. There’s almost a year and a half of my life missing along with my arm, and I don’t know what happened. I came here. I knew that you would help me, even if you didn’t know who I was. Even if I didn’t have any way to tell you.”

“Shiro...”

“I couldn’t change, and I didn’t know when or if I’d be able to ever again. So I decided that at least I could be there for you as your pet. I could cheer you up whenever you were sad. And… you were mostly sad over me.” Shiro turned in Keith’s grip to face him, “I’m sorry I left you for so long. I never meant to.”

“Why were you able to change back now?”

“I’m not positive, but I have a guess,” Shiro said, “I think it was this.” He gently took Keith’s bandaged hand and brought it up to his lips. Keith could feel Shiro’s breath on his fingers, making a shiver go straight up his arm and down his spine. “When I licked your wound. Your blood.”

“My blood?” Keith blinked in confusion, “Isn’t that more of a vampire thing?”

Shiro shrugged, “I wouldn’t know, I’ve never met any vampires. But after that, I felt restless all day. I thought I was just worried about you, because you were hurt and I couldn’t do anything. But when the moon came up tonight, I could _f_ _eel_ it again. I changed.”

“I thought you were having a seizure,” Keith said, “It… it looked like you were in pain.”

“Changing is painful,” said Shiro with a shrug, “All your bones and muscles rearranging all at once? But it only takes a few seconds, and then it’s done.”

“I guess that makes sense.” Keith said vaguely, his mind still going in circles. This was a lot to process all at once and he wasn’t entirely sure how to react to any of it.

Shiro looked suddenly embarrassed, “Um… but it does burn a lot of energy, and I was too eager to think it through and eat anything before I changed, so…”

Keith actually laughed, “You’re hungry?”

“Starving.”

Keith smiled, gave Shiro’s shoulders a quick squeeze, and got to his feet, “Okay. I’ll get you some dinner.”

Shiro reached for his clothes, scattered on the floor where Keith had dropped them, and Keith headed for the kitchen.

“How long have you been a werewolf?” he asked, opening the fridge and pulling out a Tupperware container, “And is leftover chili good?”

“Chili sounds amazing,” Shiro said, “And I… I was born a werewolf. My family were all werewolves, too.”

“You’re going to need to explain all of it to me. Everything I know about werewolves comes from horror films and I’m going to guess about 99% of it is wrong.”

This whole conversation felt completely surreal, but Keith didn’t want to question it anymore. If this was a dream, it was a good one, and he never wanted to wake up. He glanced over his shoulder to see Shiro pulling up his pants - awkwardly, with only one had - and blushed, quickly looking back at the container of chili. How the hell did that manage to look more provocative than Shiro being totally naked?

“Depends on the movie,” said Shiro, and Keith could _hear_ the smile in his voice, “But I don’t lose my mind when I change, or anything like that. And changing is something I consciously choose to do.”

He dished up a big helping of the chili into a bowl, and stuck it in the microwave. “You said that you ‘feel the moonlight’?”

“Yeah. I don’t really know how to describe it, but, if there’s moonlight on my fur, or my skin, there’s this… sensation. It’s like – like stepping into a cool shower when you’re overheated, or – well, no, it’s not exactly like that. It’s soothing, but it makes you feel energized at the same time. But it means I can change.”

“And you couldn’t, uh, feel that sensation all this time?” asked Keith.

“No. Even when it was a full moon, I couldn’t feel _anything_. It was like losing a sense I’d had all my life and it scared me more than anything ever has before. I might as well have gone blind, or deaf.” Shiro grunted and his voice was slightly muffled as he said, “Uh, Keith? Little help here?”

Keith turned to see the shirt stuck over Shiro’s head as he struggled to get it on with one arm. He hurried back over to Shiro and helped him tug it into place. The shirt had been tight on Shiro a year and a half ago, and now it looked too small, stretched over Shiro’s chest like he was one of those show-offs at the gym.

“Thanks. I’ve mostly gotten used to having three legs, but the one arm thing is going to take longer.”

“I can be your surrogate right hand,” Keith offered, “The rest of your clothes are in a storage unit in town. Actually, all the stuff from your apartment is. I ‘rescued’ it before your landlord threw it out. We can go get whatever you need tomorrow.”

“Thanks.” Shiro groaned, “Oh my god, I don’t even want to think about how hard it’s going to be to get my life back together after being a missing person for over a year.”

“I’ll help you with all of it. It’ll be a pain in the ass, but you’re not going to do it alone,” Keith promised. Shiro was still wearing the dog collar, he noticed. He reached up for the buckle, “Here, let me help you with that.”

“No, that’s okay, I don’t mind it.” Shiro covered Keith’s hand with his own. “After all, with this… I’m a Shiro you won’t lose.”

Keith felt his face go furiously hot, and he ducked his head to avoid Shiro’s gaze, “Oh god, I _said_ that.”

“You said a lot of things that broke my heart, because I couldn’t reply to them. I wanted to tell you that I love you, too,” he stroked the back of Keith’s hand with his thumb, “But I had to try to do it without words.”

Keith thought about Shiro as a dog, how sweet and affectionate he’d been, even while stuck playing the role of a pet. “You did. I didn’t know my dog was _you_ , but I knew you loved me. And it helped. Every time I started to get stuck in my own head, you’d pull me out.”

“I – Keith, I -” Shiro shook his head, “Fuck. I can finally talk again and now I don’t know what to say.”

“Then don’t worry about it. You’ve been doing well without words so far.”

Shiro leaned down, and Keith rose up on his toes to meet him, and they kissed. It was gentle, tender, exactly the way Keith had always imagined Shiro would kiss him, and it set Keith’s body aflame. He kept the kiss gentle, though. He wanted Shiro in every possible way he could have him, but there was no reason to rush things.

When they finally parted, Shiro smiled at him, and brushed Keith’s bangs out of his face, “So… how long have you been in love with me?”

“Since I was seventeen. After I started working at Lions’.” He felt a little embarrassed answering, but Shiro looked so happy to hear it, “What about you?”

“I think it was around the same time,” Shiro said, “But I didn’t realize it until a few years later. Your 21st birthday party, actually.”

“ _That’s_ when you fell for me?” Keith asked, incredulous, “I was being an antisocial prick all night!”

Shiro and his coworkers from the garage had dragged him out to a bar to ‘celebrate.’ Keith had hated it, he’d been uncomfortable and unhappy the whole time he was at the bar and not exactly doing a good job of hiding it.

“No, it was after the party. When you apologized to me for not having fun,” Shiro said, “You looked so guilty, as if it was somehow _your_ fault that everyone had completely missed the mark on what you enjoy. I just wanted to make everything better for you. And that was when I realized that I had wanted to make everything better for you since… well, pretty much the moment I first met you.”

Keith laughed, and leaned against Shiro’s shoulder, “You always did like your projects.”

“I didn’t think of you as a project, Keith. You were amazing from the beginning.”

Keith found that hard to believe. When he’d first met Shiro, he’d been an angry, orphaned teen soon to age out of foster care, trying to get emancipated minor status so that he could at least leave the system on his own terms. He hadn’t trusted the friendship Shiro had offered him, but Shiro hadn’t let Keith’s prickly behavior push him away. Shiro had always believed in him, always encouraged him, and helped him even when no one else had thought Keith was worth the effort.

“I mean it, Keith,” Shiro said, probably guessing the direction of his thoughts, “You were amazing back then, and you’re amazing now. You’ve gotten hurt so many times in so many ways, but you always, always pick yourself up and keep going. I’m so sorry that I ended up being one of the things that hurt you.”

Keith punched him in the shoulder. Gently, because he wasn’t mad, he just wanted Shiro to know he was being ridiculous.

“You’re the best goddamned thing that’s ever happened to me, Shiro, so stop with that right now. You say I’ve been through so much and you wanted to make it better for me, well so have you. And I want to make it better for you now. Just let me take care of you for a while.”

“Keith,” Shiro’s voice was soft, almost reverent.

“Come on,” Keith said, taking Shiro’s hand, “You said you were hungry.”

He walked Shiro over to the table, pulled out the chair for him, and made him sit down. He got the bowl of chili out of the microwave, stuck a spoon in it, and put it on the table in front of Shiro.

“Eat,” he ordered, in the same tone Shiro had always used on him when Keith had been the one who needed to be reminded to take care of himself.

Shiro laughed softly, and began to eat. He was a little awkward holding the spoon with his left hand, but he managed well enough, and after a few spoonfuls he ate rapidly.

“There’s plenty more if you want seconds,” Keith offered when Shiro had finished, and was looking at the empty bowl like he was contemplating licking it clean.

Shiro shook his head, “No, I think if I eat another bowl too quickly, I’ll make myself sick. It was good, though. Thank you.”

He looked toward the window with an anxious expression. Keith was about to ask what was wrong when Shiro abruptly got to his feet and walked over to it. He leaned his head against the glass and let out a deep, relieved-sounding sigh.

“Shiro?”

Shiro looked at him almost sheepishly, “Sorry, I just… I needed to check. That I could still feel it.”

Keith joined him at the window, and wrapped his arms loosely around Shiro’s waist. Shiro hugged him back tightly, and there was a tremor in his voice as he said, “If I were to get stuck again, being human would be better, but… I think not being able to feel the moonlight when I woke up was worse than missing a leg.”

Keith lightly touched the stump of Shiro’s arm. “If I ever find out who did this to you...” He didn’t know how to finish that sentence, so he just let it trail off. Someone had hurt Shiro, and if Keith ever found them he would make them pay.

He kissed Shiro again, fiercely. Shiro was _his_ , and Keith would never let anyone hurt him ever again. He fisted his hands in Shiro’s shirt, pushed until Shiro’s back hit the window with a thump. Shiro was kissing him back with just as much fervor, and Keith only broke the kiss when he desperately needed a breath.

Shiro was flushed and breathless, his eyes dark with desire. The moonlight shining through the window made his skin seem luminous, as though the light was coming from him instead of falling on him. Keith blinked, and the effect was gone. He kissed Shiro’s collarbone, then bit it gently. Just a blunt press of teeth that wouldn’t even leave a mark, but the noise it made Shiro make… obviously he’d found a good spot.

“Can you still feel it?” Keith murmured against Shiro’s neck.

“ _Yes_ ,” Shiro said, his voice coming out as a low growl, “And we’re going to need to get out of the moonlight, ‘cause if you keep that up I’m going to lose control.”

Keith wondered what ‘lose control’ meant in this context. Some of the possibilities that flitted through his mind were arousing, but maybe he shouldn’t push it before he knew what he was getting into. There would be time to ask later, though. He nodded, and pulled Shiro in the direction of the futon.

“Bed,” he said.

Keith had never been so glad his place was small, because there were only a few steps between the window and the futon and that meant he didn’t have to stop kissing Shiro for long. As soon as Shiro sat down, Keith straddled his lap and kissed him again. Shiro wrapped his arm around Keith’s waist, pulling him close in a possessive way that Keith found he really liked.

Keith bit Shiro’s collarbone again, since it had gotten him such a good reaction the first time. Shiro moaned, and tightened his grip on Keith.

“Keith...”

“I’m not letting anyone or anything take you away from me again,” Keith swore. He pulled Shiro’s shirt up roughly, and Shiro laughed.

“You just helped me get this on,” he said.

“Obviously a tactical error on my part,” Keith gave Shiro a grin, and slid off the futon to kneel on the floor in front of him. From here, he had a perfect view of Shiro’s chest and stomach, and the trail of soft, dark hair leading down from his navel to disappear under the waistband of his pants. There was already a noticeable bulge there, and Keith was pleased that Shiro was just as turned on as he was.

Keith leaned forward to kiss his skin, a few inches above his navel. He heard Shiro inhale sharply above him, and he pulled back a little to look up at Shiro’s face.

“Good?” he asked. Keith had never done anything like this before, had never even _wanted_ to do this with someone other than Shiro, so he wasn’t entirely sure what he should be doing.

“Oh my god, Keith,” Shiro gasped, and Keith decided to consider that a yes. He kissed Shiro’s stomach again, and worked his way down, leaving kisses and licks and little bites along Shiro’s midline.

He’d always been a fast learner. By the time he was unbuttoning Shiro’s jeans and pulling the zipper down, Shiro was all but panting above him.

Keith rubbed Shiro’s cock through his underwear, making him moan. God, he could _smell_ Shiro’s arousal like this, and it made his mouth water. He licked his lips, nervous and eager at the same time, and lowered his head to put his mouth on the bulge.

Shiro’s hips bucked, and he gasped, “Keith, wait!”

He sounded worried, and Keith pulled back immediately, looking up at him with concern. He thought he’d been doing well up until now. “What’s wrong?”

“Do you have any condoms?” Shiro asked, looking like it physically pained him to do so.

Keith didn’t. He’d bought one condom as a teenager that he kept in his wallet until long past its expiration date, then he’d thrown it away. He’d never had reason to buy any more, when there was no one in his life he could even imagine wanting to sleep with. He shook his head. “No.”

“Then you shouldn’t do that,” Shiro said reluctantly.

“But I want to!” Keith protested. He’d fantasized about giving Shiro head for years, and stopping when he was this close to getting what he wanted...

“I can’t remember almost a year and a half!” Shiro cried, “I know I was clean before, but we shouldn’t have unprotected sex when I don’t know if there’s a chance I could give you something.”

Keith didn’t say anything. The logical part of his mind knew that Shiro was right, of course, but the aroused part didn’t care. And another part of him felt that if someone had touched _his_ Shiro like that, he was going to commit murder. Possibly multiple murders.

“Keith?”

He sighed, and rested his head against Shiro’s thigh, “I know you’re right, I just don’t want you to be. I’ve wanted this for so long...”

“I know, me too,” Shiro replied, “But I’m not going to risk it. Especially when there are other ways we make each other feel good. Come here.”

He offered his hand to Keith and helped him to his feet. He lowered his hand to Keith’s hip and pulled him closer, his gaze never leaving Keith’s face. The love in his eyes was familiar, but the desire was new.

“Shiro…” Keith breathed. Shiro unbuttoned his pants, and slipped his hand inside to wrap around Keith’s cock. “Oh, _fuck_ , Shiro!”

Keith had touched himself before, of course (usually while thinking about Shiro), but he would never have expected it to feel so much more intense just because it was Shiro’s hand instead of his own.

“Good?” Shiro asked.

Keith grabbed his shoulders for support, since he suddenly wasn’t convinced of his legs’ ability to hold him up anymore. “ _Yes_.”

He whimpered, actually fucking _whimpered_ , when Shiro let go of his dick and scooted back farther onto the futon. He would have protested, but Shiro was trying to get his pants off one-handed and having a little trouble with it.

“Need some help?” Keith asked. He didn’t wait for an answer before he climbed onto the bed and hooked his fingers in the waistband of his pants and underwear and pulled them both down in one movement. Shiro lifted his hips so that Keith could pull them off, and obligingly put his arms over his head for Keith to remove his shirt, too.

Shiro laid back and stretched out invitingly. He could have passed for a pin-up model, and Keith could barely believe that someone so beautiful was really his. He bent over Shiro, intent on leaving kisses on every inch of his skin, but Shiro brought his hand up and tugged on Keith’s shirt.

“I’ve been the only naked one a little too much,” Shiro teased, “Does that seem fair?”

Keith could take a hint. He sat up and removed his shirt, dropping it carelessly on the floor with Shiro’s clothes. He would swear Shiro didn’t even blink as he undressed, and it would have made him feel embarrassed except for the heat in Shiro’s eyes.

When he was free of his clothes, Shiro reached up and pulled him down into a kiss that had Keith’s head spinning. As many times as he had imagined this, he could never have been prepared for how it would actually feel to have Shiro’s bare skin against his own.

Shiro ran his hand gently down Keith’s spine, giving him goosebumps and making him moan into Shiro’s mouth. He broke the kiss and looked down at Shiro, looking up at him as though he thought _Keith_ was the most gorgeous thing he’d ever seen.

“You’re still wearing something,” Keith pointed out, tracing over the collar with his fingertips, “That’s kind of kinky, Shiro, I wouldn’t have guessed you’d be into that.”

Shiro responded to his teasing with a smile, and glanced down to where Keith’s hard cock was brushing against his stomach. “It looks like you’re the you’re the one that’s into it.”

“I’m – mmph!” Keith’s retort was swallowed by a kiss.

Shiro sat up, still kissing him, and rearranged them so that Keith was straddling his lap, their cocks rubbing together. Any annoyance Keith might have felt about Shiro just picking him up and moving him around was more than outweighed by what a turn-on it was that Shiro was strong enough to do that with only one arm.

Keith’s made a noise he would never have guessed he was physically capable of when Shiro took his hand and wrapped it around both of their cocks.

“Is that good?” Shiro asked, stroking them together. He kissed Keith’s neck.

“Yeah,” Keith gasped. It was good. They were rutting together like a pair of awkward, horny teenagers, but it was _good_. Keith licked his own palm and moved his hand between their bodies to join Shiro’s.

Shiro muffled his groan against Keith’s shoulder, biting just hard enough that it sent a jolt of pleasure straight down Keith’s spine and directly to his dick.

“Oh, fuck, _Shiro_!” Keith moaned, and tilted his head to give Shiro better access, “Do that again!”

Shiro bit him again in the same spot, a little harder this time. It would probably leave a mark, and Keith felt like the only thing to do in response was to lean forward and leave a mark of his own of Shiro’s neck.

It was clumsy and desperate and a little awkward, not at all how Keith had always imagined his first time with Shiro would go, but it was better than any fantasy he’d ever had. There were so many sensations he couldn’t have imagined, like the heat of Shiro’s body, or the smell of his sweat, the gleam in his eyes as he looked at Keith… or the sound he would make as he came, spilling over their joined hands.

That was enough to push Keith over the edge as well, and he came with a cry and collapsed against Shiro’s chest. It knocked Shiro off-balance and he fell backward onto the bed, and Keith went with him.

For a few minutes, neither of them moved, just breathing together. Keith could feel his heart still beating fast, and wondered if Shiro’s heartbeat was just as rapid.

Did Shiro have a normal heart rate? Did being a werewolf make it faster or slower?

Keith smiled to himself. What a silly thing to be wondering about right now. But he was probably going to have a million little questions like that for Shiro over the next few days… or weeks… or years. How long would it take for him to learn everything about Shiro?

Shiro shifted underneath him, and kissed the top of Keith’s head, “I love you, Keith.”

“I love you too, Shiro,” Keith replied, feeling like the words themselves were inadequate to explain just _how much_ he meant it. He looked up at Shiro, gazing at him with so much emotion it was almost hard to meet his eyes, and smiled.

“Tomorrow, though, I’m definitely going to stop by a drugstore.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember to always practice safe sex with your amnesiac werewolf boyfriend.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I seriously can't thank you enough for all the feedback on this fic. I haven't felt so encouraged to write in a very long time, and it's really been helping me over the past few days as I've been dealing with some personal issues. You all are really, really awesome.

Keith woke up late the next morning, aware of a few things. His phone was ringing, his injured hand was throbbing, and he had his chest pressed firmly against a warm, muscular back. This last one woke him up the rest of the way, and he sat up.

“It wasn’t a dream,” he said aloud. Shiro was curled up in his bed, human and real and beautiful.

He reached for his phone and answered it without bothering to check the number, “Hello?”

“Hey, Keith!” Hunk said cheerfully on the other end of the line. Keith would have been annoyed at him for calling so early in the morning, but a glance at the clock showed that it was nearly 11. “How are you doing?”

Keith looked down at Shiro, who had opened his eyes and rolled over to look at him. He was smiling softly, his hair mussed from sleep, his eyes still a little drowsy, and he’d never looked more beautiful.

“I’m good,” Keith said, more truthfully than he’d been able to say those words in a very long time.

“Yeah? No problems?”

Shiro sat up and moved to sit behind Keith, pulling him against his chest. Keith relaxed into the embrace happily.

“Well, my hand hurts, but I’m about to take a painkiller. I just woke up.”

“Don’t forget your antibiotic, either,” Hunk reminded him, “The garage is about as far from a sterile environment as it’s possible to get.”

“You are such a mother hen,” Keith accused, but there was no heat behind it. He was far too happy to be upset. Shiro kissed his shoulder.

“You must have really needed the sleep, you sound super-relaxed,” said Hunk, “Anyway, I’ve got a fossil-hunting date with Shay today, and I packed us lunches and since we’re driving right by your house I thought I’d stop by and give you some. I’m about five minutes away.”

Keith looked at Shiro, who had a sudden expression of panic mirroring Keith’s own. They hadn’t figured out what they were going to tell people yet, and Keith had assumed they were going to have a few days to work it out.

“I’m not really in the mood for company, Hunk,” Keith tried to excuse himself, “I’m still tired. Yesterday took a lot out of me.”

There was no way they’d be able to hide this from Hunk if he came here. Hunk had many wonderful qualities, but respect for people’s privacy wasn’t one of them. Neither was he any good at keeping secrets. The best way to make sure everyone knew something was to tell Hunk about it and wait a few hours.

“Don’t worry, we won’t hang around, I’ll just drop it off,” Hunk said, “I can see your house now! Be there in a few!”

He hung up before Keith could protest.

Keith stared at his phone for a moment, then back up at Shiro. “Fuck. What are we going to tell him?”

“I could hide?” Shiro suggested, looking around as if the one-room cabin had suddenly turned into the kind of place a full-grown man could hide in.

“I don’t want to _hide_ you like some kind of dirty secret!” Keith protested.

Shiro looked at him with a fond expression, “I know. But since I don’t want to tell _my_ secret to Hunk right now, we need some time.” He laid back down and pulled the blanket up over his head, “So I’m still sleeping under here, and it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie.”

He curled up into a ball and to his credit the lump he made did look passably like a dog curled up under a blanket. He tapped his foot against the bed, and it even looked like he could be wagging his tail under there. Keith laughed despite his nervousness.

He got up and put on a shirt just as he heard Hunk’s truck pulling into the driveway. Hoping to head off any questions he wasn’t ready to answer, he went outside to greet Hunk on the porch.

“Here you go!” Hunk said with a smile, handing him a large paper bag. From the weight, it seemed like Hunk had made him three days worth of food.

“What all is in here?” Keith asked, looking in the top of the bag.

“Chicken salad sandwiches, homemade zucchini bread, a quarter of a watermelon and some yogurt ‘cause if you’re on antibiotics you’ll need it to keep from having an upset stomach,” Hunk said with a grin.

“Hunk, I can’t –,” Keith started to protest, but thought better of it. Lance was right when he had said Hunk was totally the mom friend in their group. He liked to take care of people. “Thank you, this is a lot more than I would have ever expected. Or asked for.”

Hunk waved a hand dismissively, but he looked pleased at the compliment, “It was no problem! You know how much I love to cook for people!”

Keith laughed, “I’m pretty sure that we could say ‘Hunk brings baked goods on Fridays’ is an official job benefit of working at Lions.”

“Be sure to let me know how the zucchini bread turned out, it’s a new recipe.” Hunk paused, peering at Keith closely. His _neck_ , Keith suddenly realized. Oh god, had Shiro’s love bites left _marks_? How the hell was he going to explain hickeys?

“What?” Keith asked, cautiously.

“What happened to your neck?” Hunk asked, “You’ve got this, like, red mark or something...”

“Oh, that was – it was Shiro,” Keith said, not exactly lying. Thinking quickly, he added, “He jumped up on the bed when I was lying there and kind of got me with his foot...”

He didn’t know what the mark looked like, so he had no idea how believable that was as an explanation. _Please, please buy it, Hunk_.

“Ah, okay,” Hunk said cheerfully, “It looked like it could be a rash or something, I was worried that maybe you were allergic to the medications the doc gave you. But if you’re fine, I’ll get out of your hair. Enjoy your mini-vacation and take care of yourself, Keith!”

He went back to his truck, and Shay waved at Keith from the window. He’d seen her a few times before, but never had a conversation with the woman. He knew that she was a paleontologist, and that Hunk adored her, but that was about it. He tuned out too much when his coworkers started discussing their personal lives. It was a really poor way to repay the kind of friendship they showed him, he realized, holding the heavy bag of food Hunk had brought him.

He went back inside with the bag, and as he shut the door behind him Shiro poked his head out from under the blanket, “What did he bring?”

“Enough food for a small army,” Keith said, “You want some lunch?”

“Yes, please.” Shiro threw off the blanket and got up, and Keith set the bag down on the table and began to pull things out of it.

“After this, let’s go to the storage unit and get some of your stuff,” Keith said, “And then I guess… talk about what we’re gonna tell everyone? There’s no fucking way anyone’ll believe us if we just tell them the truth.”

Shiro looked toward the window, where Hunk’s truck could still just be seen at the end of the long drive, about to turn onto the main road.

“You’re the only person I’ve ever told,” he said softly, “My family always told me to keep it a secret. But I never liked having to lie to my friends. I wanted to tell you before… I wonder if – if you might have been able to find me sooner, if you knew.”

Keith wondered that, too. Maybe if he had known Shiro was a werewolf, Shiro wouldn’t have gone off into the desert alone, and Keith could have protected him from… whatever it was that had happened to him.

“Do you… do you want to tell people?” Keith asked.

“Not – not _everyone_ ,” said Shiro, softly, as if he was afraid of being overheard, “But… maybe just a few people? Just… the friends we can trust.”

‘We’. Keith liked that, Shiro saying that they were in this together.

“So, I’m going to guess Allura is one of those trustworthy friends,” Keith said.

Allura and Shiro had been good friends before Shiro disappeared. Not as close as Shiro and Keith were, but close enough it had sometimes made Keith jealous. He had been jealous of all of Shiro’s friends sometimes, a small part of him always convinced that he didn’t deserve to have someone like Shiro care about him, that some day Shiro would realize it wasn’t worth it to keep trying for someone as messed up as Keith.  Looking back on it now, he could see how ridiculous it had been for him to feel that way. Shiro had always been there, even when Keith did things that would have pushed most people away. And when Shiro had most needed help, he’d come to _Keith_ , no one else.

Shiro nodded, “Yeah. I know she’ll keep it a secret. Besides, I’m pretty sure she’s not entirely human either -”

“Wait, what?” Keith interrupted.

“Shit,” Shiro winced, “I’m going to have to get used to keeping my big mouth shut again. I, um, I sometimes suspected it before, but in wolf form – my sense of smell is so much better – and at the shop, she smelled _different_. I don’t know what she is.”

“Okay,” said Keith, because there wasn’t really anything else to say. Shiro was a werewolf, why shouldn’t Allura also be something else? “Is – is anyone else at the shop a… supernatural creature?”

“I think Coran might be,” Shiro said, “He has the same scent as Allura, just not as strong.”

“He’s her uncle, that makes sense.”

Shiro dropped his head to the table and groaned, “This is a great start to a conversation about how Allura would keep my secret. Yeah, she’ll keep mine while I just blurt out hers!”

Keith patted his back, “I won’t say anything to anyone. And if she ever tells me about it, I’ll pretend I didn’t know.”

Shiro laughed ruefully, his forehead still pressed to the table, “I feel like I’m going to say a lot of stuff like that now that I finally have someone to talk to.”

Keith smiled, “That’s fine. I want to know everything about you, Shiro.”

Shiro turned his head, his cheek resting on the table as he looked up at Keith with a smile. He looked _really_ cute like that. “Sure. Ask me any questions you like.”

The first question that Keith wondered about was how it was possible for a 6’3”, muscular man with a highly visible scar on his face to be so fucking _adorable_. But he had other things to ask.

“Your whole family are werewolves?” Keith asked. He knew Shiro had a fairly large extended family, but they were all back in Japan. His parents had moved to America before Shiro was born. They had died in a car accident about a year after Keith had met Shiro, before Keith had ever had the chance to meet them.  He wondered if they would've liked him.

Shiro nodded, “Yeah. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.”

“How many are there?” Keith asked.

“In my family? Uh,” Shiro paused, tapping his fingers on the table, “Fifteen, I think. At least if no one’s had a baby or died since the last time I got in touch.”

He sounded way too casual about that, and Keith frowned.

Shiro looked at him and raised an eyebrow, “I’m not exactly close with them. I’ve been to Japan a grand total of three times in my life. They _really_ didn’t like mom and dad moving to the States.”

That didn't surprise Keith.  None of them had shown up to the funeral for Shiro's parents, and Keith had been furious on Shiro's behalf.  It had been the first time in a long, long time that he had been angry _for_ someone else.

He didn't linger on the subject. “Are there werewolves here, too? Other than you, I mean.”

“Some. Not exactly local, though. I don’t really know any of them. I know there’s a family that lives near or in Yellowstone, and one out on the west coast somewhere, and uh… one in a town north of the Grand Canyon, I think?” Shiro said, “I’m 99% sure I’m the only werewolf in at least a fifty-mile radius.”

“That sounds...” Keith considered it, “Kind of lonely.”

Shiro looked a little taken aback. “I guess? I don’t feel lonely, though.” He smiled softly at Keith, and Keith could feel himself blush. “Especially now that someone else knows.”

“I’m glad you don’t mind all my questions.”

“Why would I mind? I’ve always liked teaching you things.”

Keith laughed, and thought of another question that had come to him. “So it’s not just during the full moon that you can change shape, right? Any phase of the moon works?”

Shiro nodded, “Yeah, though it’s easier to change when the moon is full.  The moonlight is brighter, and it goes a lot faster, so it’s less painful. Trying to change under a waning crescent moon takes almost five minutes. No werewolf would do it unless they really needed to.”

Keith wondered if Shiro had been downplaying how painful it was for him to change shape last night. He was glad it had happened, but he hated the idea of Shiro being in pain, even for a few seconds.

“Is that thing about people turning into werewolves if they get bitten by one true?” Keith asked, “I mean, _can_ a human become a werewolf or is it just something you’re born as or not?”

“It’s possible,” replied Shiro, “I’ve never personally met a werewolf that wasn’t born as one, but it is possible. And it does involve a bite, but that’s only one part of a long process.”

Interesting. “Huh. What else does it involve?”

Shiro sat up fully, his back ramrod straight, and stared at Keith, “Are you – are you asking because you’re thinking about becoming a werewolf?” He looked almost panicked at the thought.

“No, I’m just curious,” Keith answered, “Why do you look so freaked out? Would it be a bad thing if I were?”

“I – I – I don’t know. I’ve had to spend my whole life hiding it. It’s not that I would want to be anything else, but I was born into it. And sometimes it really, really sucked. I just – the idea of you going through everything I have...” Shiro gripped Keith’s hand tightly, “I don’t want that for you.”

Keith squeezed Shiro’s fingers reassuringly, “Don’t worry. I think I prefer helping to keep your secret instead of having one of my own.”

Shiro looked at him with an expression of such love and gratitude that Keith had to lean over and kiss him. He could feel Shiro smiling against his mouth, and he liked it. He stopped before the kiss could deepen into anything more than affectionate, and picked up one of the sandwiches Hunk had brought.

“Here,” he said, unwrapping it and handing it to Shiro, “You should eat. We’ve got a lot to do today.”

Shiro took the sandwich and smiled at Keith, “All right. And you should take your medicine.” He nodded toward the bag that had Keith’s prescriptions in it, a familiar gleam in his eye.

… They were going to get a little bit competitive over taking care of each other, weren’t they? Keith grinned. He didn’t mind that at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some worldbuilding and a little backstory in this chapter, and... do I spy a hint of plot there, too?!
> 
> In the next chapter we'll get some of Shiro's POV.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shiro's POV at last! (And now I get to write about how great Keith is for a while.)

After they’d finished lunch (Shiro didn’t know if it was _actually_ the best chicken salad he’d ever tasted or if it just seemed like it because he finally had human taste buds again), Keith helped Shiro get dressed again, and started talking about what they would need to do. There was a lot more than simply getting Shiro’s stuff out of storage, and Keith planned for it like a general might plan a battle.

Maybe Shiro shouldn’t have been surprised at how easily Keith rolled with all of this, but he was. Keith said that Shiro being a werewolf didn’t bother him at all, and if it had been anyone else saying that, Shiro would have doubted them. But with Keith, he believed it. Keith had always been good at shrugging his shoulders and ‘just fucking dealing’ with unexpected changes in his life.

“Probably the only good thing to come out of nine years of foster care,” Keith said when Shiro mentioned that to him, “Things happen that totally blindside you all the time. You can freak out about it, or you can deal.”

He met Shiro’s eyes and smiled – that beautiful, soft smile that he only ever gave Shiro. He lifted his hand and held it out to Shiro, palm upraised, in invitation. Shiro held it, and Keith squeezed his fingers, “Whenever you’ve blindsided me, it’s always been a good thing.”

Shiro had known for a long time that he loved Keith, but at that moment, he felt like he would _cheerfully_ take a bullet for him. For his whole life he had been certain that telling anyone he was a werewolf would be a _massive_ obstacle to overcome, and now he’d told Keith, and Keith… Keith didn’t mind it at all.

“I feel like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop,” Shiro admitted, “I would never have expected anyone, even you, to just accept this so easily. I’m glad you do, but...”

Keith laughed, “You were expecting me to freak out?”

“I mean… a little?” Shiro admitted, embarrassed. He’d been prepared for caution and suspicion at the best, fear and rejection at the worst, but Keith’s first reaction was to be embarrassed about having treated him like a pet for the last six weeks. He should have had more faith in Keith.

“If it would make you feel better, I could run around screaming and waving my arms over my head,” offered Keith with a grin.

“No, that’s fine.” Shiro couldn’t help but smile back. He’d missed Keith’s sense of humor. “I’m just… I’m so grateful, Keith. That you know my secret and you still look at me the same way.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Keith sounded genuinely confused, “Yeah, this is strange and new and I’m going to have to get used to it, but that’s not a _bad_ thing. It was strange and new and I had to get used to it when we first became friends, too.”

Shiro wrapped his arm around Keith’s waist, pulled him close, and buried his nose in Keith’s hair. His sense of smell was far less sensitive in this form, but Keith’s scent was still soothing as he breathed it in. “I love you so much.”

Keith smiled at him, “If you start with that, we’re not going to get anything done today.”

“Staying here has its appeal, though,” Shiro said, leaning down to nuzzle Keith’s ear.

Keith pushed him away with a laugh, “No, come on! We really need to go deal with this stuff. Besides… we need supplies anyway for the things I want to do with you.”

Shiro could hardly argue with that logic, so he let Keith take his hand and lead him out to the car. Driving along the road into town was pleasant enough, but when they reached their first stop (a shoe store, to replace his boots that had disappeared, because the only shoes Keith had that even _sort of_ fit on Shiro’s feet was an old pair of flip-flops ) and Shiro had to get out of the car, he immediately felt uncomfortable.

He knew he was highly noticeable, with his scars and missing arm. He had gotten stares for being a three-legged dog, too, but this felt different. There were a lot more assumptions people would make about him as a human amputee.

Keith noticed his hesitation, of course. “You okay, Shiro?”

“I’m fine,” Shiro reassured him, “I’m just going to have to get used to being stared at, I guess.”

Keith put his hand on Shiro’s shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. They went in together, and Shiro managed to forget the curious glances he was getting for a while, until they went to check out and the cashier thanked him for his service and mentioned that the store had a veteran’s discount.

“I’m… not a veteran,” Shiro said, deeply uncomfortable. Now she was going to _ask_ , and he braced himself to make something up, but it was Keith who jumped in.

“And it wouldn’t apply anyway, because I’m paying for it,” Keith said firmly, slapping his ATM card down on the counter, “Belated birthday present.”

Shiro’s birthday had been _months_ ago, and he couldn’t help but give Keith a look. Keith looked back at him steadily, as if daring him to protest, and Shiro kept his mouth shut.

The cashier seemed to pick up on the atmosphere, because she said a quick, somewhat sheepish ‘sorry’ and finished ringing up.

Still, Shiro was relieved to get back into the car. No one who happened to glance in through the window would notice that his arm was missing. Or that Keith was holding his hand.

“Okay, another question,” Keith said abruptly.

“Yeah?”

“Flagstaff is almost a hundred miles away. How’d you get back here?”

“I walked,” Shiro said with a shrug, “Mostly at night to avoid the heat. It wasn’t like I was deep in the wilderness or anything. Once I saw a road sign, I knew where I was and how to get home, so I followed the interstate. It took, uh, I think four days?”

“That must have been tough,” Keith said softly.

“I managed it,” Shiro smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring way.

It _had_ been tough, of course it had, but what was the point in telling Keith about how hard it had been? He’d had to eat roadkill because he couldn’t run fast enough on three legs to catch anything for himself, he’d drank out of stagnant puddles, and walked until his paws felt like they would fall off. But he’d made it back home, back to Keith, and Keith had immediately taken care of him. He didn’t need to fish for sympathy, and he didn’t want to upset Keith by telling him all the unpleasant details. Keith was handling it all so well, but he was already worried and upset enough by Shiro’s scars…

“I would have walked any distance to come back to you,” Shiro said, and liked the way Keith’s cheeks went pink. He was being completely truthful, too, which made it the best kind of flirting.

“We’re here!” Keith said, a little too loud, pulling into the storage facility’s parking lot. Shiro smiled. He hadn’t thought he’d be able to fluster Keith so easily, but it was cute that he could.

There was only one person there, a bored-looking young man at the office who didn’t even look up from his phone when they came in. Apparently not many people were coming to get things out of storage at 2:30 on a Wednesday afternoon.

“We need to get some stuff out of unit C18,” Keith said.

“You gonna need to rent a truck?” the guy asked, not looking up from his phone.

“No.”

“Got the key for it?”

“Yes.”

“Then just go on in,” he said, waving vaguely in the direction of the door, “You don’t need anything from me.”

“Okay,” Keith said.

As soon as they were through the door, Shiro caught Keith’s eye and they both started laughing.

“I guess a high score at Angry Birds is more important than looking at people,” Shiro said.

“That’s the kind of job I would’ve _loved_ as a teenager,” Keith replied, “Never having to make eye contact with customers? Sounds perfect.”

Shiro put his hand on Keith’s shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “You’re better at dealing with people than you give yourself credit for.”

“I said _customers_ , not people. They’re a different category. People can be alright. Customers are the _worst_.”

“Okay, I guess I can’t argue with that.” Even in the brief time he’d been coming with Keith to the garage every day, he’d seen a lot of idiots. A lot of rude and _condescending_ idiots, too, particularly to Allura. He’d been sorely tempted to bite the man who’d been openly racist to her, and the woman who had mocked Allura’s accent. He hadn’t, of course, hadn’t even bared his teeth, but once they’d left he’d put his head under Allura’s hand and whined to be petted until she had cheered up. It had been the best he could do at the time, and it seemed to work.

He wondered if Allura had suspected anything. Sometimes she looked at him like he was a riddle she was trying to figure out. And that strange undertone to her scent… not at all like a werewolf, but sharp and prickling in his brain. Familiar. He was certain he’d smelled it before.

Keith reached the storage unit and opened the padlock with a small key. He opened the door, and Shiro looked inside.

It was slightly disconcerting, to see the remnants of his former life all reduced down to a bunch of boxes. His furniture was there, too, toward the back, mattress and bed frame leaned up against the wall, his old wardrobe, his little kitchen table and chairs, and even the pink and cream-colored couch he’d gotten from Goodwill for $65. He remembered Keith helping him get that couch up the stairs into his second-floor apartment, and how they’d collapsed on it afterward to watch TV while they waited for pizza to arrive.

Keith had crashed on that couch several times, and Shiro had always wanted to invite Keith to share his bed.

“Obviously we can’t grab everything right now,” Keith said softly, bringing Shiro out of his reverie, “But we can get anything that’s really important.”

“I’ll go find one of those little carts,” Shiro said. He wouldn’t be able to carry a box one-handed, but he could push a cart just fine.

They ended up taking only three boxes – two containing Shiro’s clothes, and one with some of his books – and a few other items Shiro cared about. The small jewelry box that had his parents’ wedding rings, his pillow and favorite blanket, and the sun catcher that had hung in his bedroom window ever since he was a child.

“So what’s with all the lions?” Keith asked as they were leaving. He was pushing the cart, and Shiro had only managed to get Keith to let him carry his pillow and blanket. He was a little annoyed about that, but it was nice to have Keith so concerned for him.

“What do you mean? They’re my favorite animal.” He didn’t think he had that much stuff with lions on it, but apparently it was enough of a pattern for Keith to notice and comment.

“I mean… why not wolves?” Keith asked, and Shiro laughed.

“Are humans your favorite animal?” Shiro replied with a smile.

Keith snorted, “Pretty close to the bottom of the list, actually. Higher than scorpions and jumping spiders, at least.”

Shiro laughed again, because he knew Keith’s antisocial attitude was a facade. He didn’t make new friends easily, but when Keith cared about someone, he cared _deeply_.

“Besides, why would I risk having anyone associate me with wolves?” Shiro continued.

“Oh. I guess that makes sense.”

“So what’s your favorite animal?”

Keith grinned at him and answered, “Nowadays? Definitely wolves.”

Shiro blushed. So Keith could fluster him pretty easily, too, and Shiro found he didn’t mind so much.

They went to a drugstore to get Shiro the basic essentials that even Keith, in mourning and denial and convinced that Shiro would be found, wouldn’t have bothered putting in storage for a year and a half. Shiro picked up a toothbrush and toothpaste, deodorant, and some unscented soaps – he liked the way Keith’s soap smelled on him, but sometimes scented stuff could get overpowering and give him a headache. He was a little concerned about the cost of everything, but Keith very firmly told him to relax.

“We’ll see if we can get your bank account sorted out at some point, but for now, I’ll take care of it. Buying you toiletries and other stuff isn’t gonna break me financially.” He grabbed a bag of chocolates off the shelf – dark chocolate with mint, Shiro’s favorite, and he was pleased by the way Keith remembered even those little details – and stuck it in the basket with maybe a touch more drama than the situation called for. “Anything else you want?”

Shiro gave in, and let Keith get him a bunch of other things that he didn’t really need, but had to admit he wanted. There were so many difficult things he’d have to deal with in the next while, but letting Keith take care of him wasn’t one of them.

When they checked out, Shiro noticed that Keith had added a box of condoms and personal lubricant to the basket, and he tried not to get flustered when they were rung up. The cashier probably hadn’t even consciously registered it. He was busy trying not to stare too obviously at Shiro’s missing arm.

“Maybe I can get a prosthetic at some point, so it’s not so obvious,” he murmured as they got back in the car.

“People shouldn’t stare at you like that,” Keith growled.

“But they’re going to,” Shiro sighed, “I guess I’ll just have to get used to it.”

They went through a drive-thru for dinner. Keith didn’t say anything about it, but Shiro was sure it was to spare him from having any more people staring at him. He didn’t mind, but as soon as Keith pulled into the drive-thru line he remembered something and began to laugh.

“What?” Keith asked.

“The last time we came here, you got me chicken nuggets.” That had been about two weeks ago, and Keith had ordered a cheeseburger for himself and a four-piece order of chicken nuggets for Shiro. Somehow it wasn’t shocking that Keith was the kind of person who would spoil his dog rotten. Even stuck in wolf form, life with Keith had been pretty good.

Keith smiled at him, “This time you can have a drink, too.”

“How generous of you.”

“Nothing but the best for my boyfriend,” Keith teased, then realized what he had said and blushed furiously. He immediately turned to the window and looked at the menu.

Shiro put his hand on Keith’s leg and gave him a gentle squeeze, “I think it’s cute how you get flustered by these little things.”

“I just realized that I wasn’t sure if I should call you that,” Keith muttered, “I mean… are we, y’know, dating now?”

“Do you want us to be?” As far as Shiro was concerned, they most definitely were, but they hadn’t actually talked about it yet. Too many other concerns to be handled at once.

“I want _you_ , Shiro,” Keith said, “I don’t need to put a label on it if you don’t want that...”

Even after all of this, was Keith still doubting his importance to Shiro? But that hesitation, the way he wouldn’t quite meet Shiro’s eyes, like he somehow thought Shiro wouldn’t want...

“Keith. Baby. Of course I want that. You can call me your boyfriend, your lover, or whatever embarrassing cutesy nickname you want… I love you.”

Keith smiled at him like the sun breaking through the clouds on a gloomy day. He leaned toward Shiro, and Shiro leaned in himself, ready to kiss him –

The car behind them honked its horn, and Keith jumped. The line of cars had moved forward, and Keith pulled up.

“There’s probably better places for me to kiss you than in line at a drive-thru,” he said, sounding a little put out.

“Like at home?”

“Exactly.”

They ate in the car on the ride home, and Shiro was glad that it was food that didn’t require any sort of cutlery. He thought he was getting used to having only one hand more quickly than he might have expected, but he wasn’t left-handed, and his fine motor skills were practically non-existent. He was going to have to relearn so many things, and he just didn’t want to deal with fighting with a fork and knife at the moment.

And it had been a long damn time since Shiro had eaten a hamburger, so that was nice. His senses, including taste, were different in wolf form, but he was very happy that he wouldn’t have to eat any more kibble.

They arrived back at the house and carried everything inside in a few trips. If Shiro had still had two arms, he was certain he could have gotten everything inside in one trip…

He sighed heavily, and sat down on the edge of Keith’s lumpy old futon. It wasn’t the most comfortable bed in the world. Maybe they could get Shiro’s bed out of the storage unit to replace it. Or maybe, once they’d gotten things a bit more sorted out, they could get a different place together.

That all depended on what ‘sorted out’ ended up looking like, though, didn’t it?  And he knew what the next step was going to be.

“We should call Allura,” Shiro said.

“Are you sure you want to do it right now?” Keith asked.

Shiro was pretty sure he didn’t _want_ to at all. It wasn't that he didn’t trust Allura, just that taking the plunge and telling someone the truth about himself after twenty-seven years spent carefully hiding it was terrifying. “It’s not going to get any easier the longer we wait.”

The longer he delayed, the more time he’d have to talk himself out of this.

“Alright,” Keith said, and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He dialed, and pressed the button to put in on speakerphone, and Shiro held his breath as the phone rang. Three rings, and then -

“Hello, Keith!” came Allura’s voice, sounding cheerful, “I wasn’t expecting to hear from you today, is everything all right?”

“I’m fine,” Keith said quickly, “But, uh, there’s something I need to tell you… where are you right now?”

“I just got in my car, I’m heading home.”

“You might want to pull over before I tell you this.”

“Keith, what’s wrong?” Allura sounded very worried now.

Keith looked almost as nervous as Shiro felt. “I swear it’s not bad, but if you don’t pull over you might wreck your car when I tell you.”

“Okay, I’m pulling over.” There was a pause, with nothing but the noises of Allura’s car in the background. “I’m parked. What is it?”

“It’s Shiro,” Keith said, smiling, “He’s back.”

“What?”

That was his cue, Shiro knew. He took a deep breath and said, “Allura, I – I’m home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter may take a little longer. I've been really busy gearing up for a trip at the end of the month, so I haven't had as much free time for writing. I'd say the next chapter is about... halfway written?


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it was a bit of a longer wait, but it's also a longer chapter to make up for it! Hope it was worth the wait.

“Shiro? Oh my god!” Allura sounded like she was about to start crying, “It’s – it’s really you? What happened to you?! Where have you been?!”

“I… it’s a long story, and I – I think it’ll be easier to talk face to face,” Shiro said, “Can you come here?”

“I – I –,” Allura stammered, then took a deep breath, “Yes, of course! Are you at Keith’s house?”

Shiro nodded, then remembered that Allura couldn’t see him. “Yeah.”

“I can be there in twenty minutes,” Allura said, and Shiro could hear her car’s engine revving in the background.

“Okay. I’ll see you soon. Drive safe.” He added the last automatically. He’d always said that to his friends, and it was strangely normal for the situation.

“I will.”

She hung up, and Keith wrapped his arms around Shiro and hugged him tightly. It helped ground him, and Shiro was able to breathe more normally.

“You’re shaking,” Keith said softly.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had this much adrenaline pumping through my veins. Not even the time I went bungee jumping,” Shiro said, trying to make it a joke but certain he wasn’t managing very well.

This felt a lot like bungee jumping had. He’d jumped, now there was nothing he could do but wait and trust that everything would go like it was supposed to. He knew Allura, and he trusted her, and he wasn’t doing this alone. He had Keith.

“Are you okay?” Keith asked, rubbing his hand up and down Shiro’s back.

“I’ll be fine. It’s just that now I’ve got twenty minutes to wait and think of everything that could go wrong.” He hadn’t been this nervous when he’d changed in front of Keith. He’d been too afraid that he’d suddenly stop feeling the moonlight again, so he’d changed as soon as he could. There had been no time for anxiety to set in.

Would Allura believe him, or would he have to change to prove it?

Would he still be able to feel it when the moon came up tonight? What if he was stuck again? He meant when he told Keith that being stuck in human shape would be better, but he’d hate to lose something that had always been a part of him…

“It’s gonna be okay, Shiro,” Keith murmured, “No matter what happens, I’ve got you and you’ve got me.”

Shiro smiled at him, “I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”

Keith gave him a disbelieving look and opened his mouth to protest, but Shiro cut him off with a kiss. Keith relaxed into it, sighing into Shiro’s mouth, and when Shiro pulled away he let out a small, probably involuntary whine. He was perfect, and Shiro couldn’t believe his luck.

“But if I ever figure out what it was, I’m going to do it every day for the rest of my life,” he finished.

Keith laughed, “You already do.”

Shiro pulled Keith close and buried his nose in his hair. He breathed in, letting Keith’s scent soothe his rattled nerves. Everything would be okay.

All too soon, Shiro heard the crunch of tires on the gravel driveway, and his sense of calm quickly vanished. This was it. He heard the car door slam.

Keith gave him one last squeeze before letting him go, and got up to as Allura knocked on the door. Shiro stood up as well, and followed behind him.

Keith opened the door, and Allura burst through almost before he had a chance to open it all the way, looking more frantic than Shiro had ever seen her – she was usually so composed.

“Where is -?” she started to ask, then she caught sight of him. “Shiro!”

She looked overwhelmed, staring at him. He opened his mouth to say something, although he had no idea what, but Allura rushed forward and hugged him.

“I thought you were _dead_!” she cried, “Where have you been?!”

She let him go and took a step back, her hands still on his shoulders. He could see her eyes sweep over him, lingering on his hair, his face, and finally his missing arm.

“What happened to you?” she asked. He thought he could see the wheels turning in her head, and she looked around the room. She looked back at him, then again at his missing arm. “Shiro, you...”

“I was the dog,” Shiro said, hoping that her mind had already gone there and that he didn’t sound crazy. “I’m – I’m a werewolf.”

Allura blinked slowly. She released his shoulders and took a step back. Shiro didn’t know what to say or do, and his heart was pounding so loudly he felt like could barely hear. Keith took a step closer to him and held his arm in a protective way, and Shiro felt a little better.

“A werewolf?” Allura echoed. “You’re… I need to sit down.”

Wordlessly, Shiro stepped out of the way so Allura could take a seat at the table. She fell into the chair heavily, and put her elbows on the table, resting her forehead in her hands. There was silence for a few moments that seemed to stretch out into almost an eternity.

“I can’t believe,” Allura said, shaking her head, “I should have recognized – I knew you weren’t a regular dog, but I didn’t – I’ve studied, I should have been able to tell!”

“Studied?” Keith asked.

Allura’s mouth shut with an audible click, and she suddenly looked flustered. She looked at Keith, then back at Shiro and sighed, “Well, if you’re a werewolf, you could probably already tell. I’m –”

She glanced nervously toward Keith, and Keith smiled at her reassuringly, “I’m pretty sure whatever you’re going to say or do isn’t going to shock me any more than Shiro did.”

Allura nodded at him, “Alright, then.”

She exhaled sharply, and in an instant, she looked _different_. It wasn’t like a werewolf’s change, it happened all at once, like a sudden jump cut where one actress had been replaced with another. Her bleached platinum blonde hair was pure white, her ears were pointed, and pink marks like tattoos were beneath her eyes, which were so bright a blue they looked almost luminescent.

She looked at them with a smile that did nothing to cover her nervousness. “This is what I look like without the glamour.”

Looking at her like that, it was clear that she wasn’t human, but Shiro smiled at her reassuringly, “I could tell that you smelled _different_ , but I didn’t know exactly why.”

Keith was looking at Allura with a curious expression. After studying her for a moment, he said, “So… given that I’m new to all this supernatural stuff, is it some kind of horrible faux pas for me to say I have no idea what you are?”

Allura laughed, probably more from relief than humor, “No. I’m fae-blooded.”

“What’s that?”

“My great-grandfather is an elf. I’m more human than not, but Fae ancestry always leaves traces,” she touched the mark beneath her eye, “Very strong ones.”

She still looked nervous, and Shiro was certain he understood exactly what she was feeling. He sat down in the other chair, both to make Allura more comfortable, and because his legs still felt a bit shaky.

“I still want to know what happened to you, Shiro,” Allura said, after a moment’s pause.

“Where to start?” Shiro muttered, “I guess the brief version is that I was stuck in wolf shape and I couldn’t change back until last night.”

“How?” Allura asked.

“How did I get stuck, or how did I change back?”

“Either. Both.”

“I don’t know,” Shiro admitted, “I don’t know why or how I got stuck in the first place, and I’ve only got a guess as to why I could change back.”

Allura said nothing, and Shiro let the pause grow a little too long before he realized she was waiting for him to continue.

“When Keith got hurt yesterday, I licked his wound,” Shiro said, raising his hand to lightly brush Keith’s bandaged one, “And then when the moon came up I could change again.”

Allura nodded, her expression thoughtful. “I’ve never heard of anything exactly like this before, but transformation magic frequently involves blood, so that would make sense. I didn’t know werewolves _could_ get stuck in one form.”

“Neither did I,” Shiro said softly. Keith moved to stand behind him, putting his hands reassuringly on Shiro’s shoulders. Keith had never been this protective before, but Shiro didn’t mind. It helped.

“But you’ve only been here as Keith’s dog for… less than two months. What happened before that?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

Shiro had had this exact same conversation with Keith less than twenty-four hours ago, but it was a little bit easier the second time around. He gave Allura a brief explanation of what he’d done the night he disappeared, and of waking up with a missing leg and no memories and coming home. There was nothing in between, except for a vague sense of dread.

Allura listened to it all with a thoughtful and somewhat concerned frown.

“That’s… worrying,” Allura said, once Shiro was finished.

Keith snorted, “That’s an understatement.”

“I was trying to be diplomatic,” Allura said, “I don’t think it’ll help any of us to freak out over how bad it is.”

That sounded ominous. Shiro didn’t exactly want to, but he had to ask, “How bad is it?”

Allura shook her head, “I’m not sure. This is pretty far outside my area of expertise. Shiro… I won’t breathe a word of this to anyone if you don’t want me to, and I’ll help you in any way I can, but _I’ll_ need help to be able to help you. May I call Coran and tell him about this?”

“Coran is like you, isn’t he?” He had already been pretty sure about that, and this was effectively a confirmation.

Allura nodded, “Yes. He’s my teacher, and he knows much, much more about magic than I do. I think he’ll be able to help figure out what happened to you.”

He might as well at this point, right? The idea of more people knowing freaked him out, but he’d already committed this far, and if Allura thought Coran could help him figure out what had happened during the gap in his memory, then he would do it. He needed to know, even though he was scared to find out.

“Alright,” Shiro agreed, “I trust you.”

“Coran will keep your secret, too,” Allura reassured him, “I know he acts like such a goof sometimes, but he’s the most trustworthy person I’ve ever known, and one of the most learned. I have a few theories about what may have happened, but Coran will _know_ – or at least be able to find out – he’s actually personally met werewolves before, so –”

“I already agreed, you don’t have to keep convincing me,” said Shiro, amused despite everything.

“Right. Sorry, I’m just a little thrown by all this. But I’m very, very glad you’re back, Shiro. And… Keith, I’m sorry. For doubting you, and for what I said when -”

“It’s okay,” Keith cut her off, “I mean, you were right, I wasn’t – just because I was right that Shiro was still alive doesn’t mean the way I acted was –” He sighed, and shook his head, “I’m sorry, too.”

Shiro looked between Keith and Allura, both of whom seemed equally uncomfortable and awkward. “So what’s the story here?”

“I, uh… didn’t exactly handle Keith’s grief with the most empathy,” said Allura softly, “You’d been missing for three months, and -”

“The short version is that we had a screaming fight and I threw a tool box across the garage and told her I quit,” said Keith, looking at the floor with more embarrassment than Shiro had ever seen on his face.

“Keith...” Shiro had only seen Keith truly lose his temper a handful of times, and it could be terrifying. Keith’s anger was violent when it broke through, though it never lasted long.

“I was angry, too,” Allura explained, looking embarrassed as well, “I was just so frustrated, and hurt, and it felt... it felt easier to take it out on you.  I was trying to make _you_ angry. I thought that if I did, you’d realize I was right. Not the best plan I’ve ever had.”

“It’s in the past,” Keith said firmly, “We made up more than a year ago, and I don’t know about you, but I’d rather focus on taking care of Shiro now than on dredging up old arguments.”

He took Shiro’s hand and laced their fingers together, and Allura noticed the action, her eyes lingering on their joined hands.

She looked up at Shiro’s face with an excited sparkle in her eyes, “Shiro, did you finally…?”

Shiro knew what she was asking. Allura had been the only person he’d told about his feelings for Keith, and she had encouraged him to confess. Shiro had been nervous, scared of messing up the best friendship he had, and she’d been positive that Keith liked him back.

“Keith beat me to it, but yeah,” Shiro smiled at Keith. He wanted to lean over and kiss him, but wasn’t sure if Keith would be comfortable with that kind of PDA.

“Well, it’s about time!” Allura said, “If you’d come back just so that I could watch the two of you dancing around each other for another three years, I would’ve had to do something drastic. Slipped you a truth potion or something.”

“Those exist?”

Allura laughed, “Yes, although I probably wouldn’t have actually done that. It’s a little... dubious, ethically speaking.”

Shiro shook his head, “So I guess we’re about to get a crash course in magic?”

Shiro had always known there were… _other_ things in the world. There were places out in the wilderness where he could smell things that weren’t human or animal, things that kept hidden, but he didn’t go looking for them. He’d never had an interest in seeking them out, and he felt that the other things were happy enough to live and let live if he ignored them. His parents had told him everything he needed to know about werewolves, and that had always been enough for him.

Now, though, he was going to need to know more. That scent that he’d noticed on Allura, strangely familiar even though he couldn’t think of where he’d smelled it before… when he focused on trying to remember it, he felt a cold prickle of fear in his stomach. Had he run afoul of something that was like her? Was that what had happened to him?

“This is so weird to think about,” said Keith, “I _watched_ you turn from a dog to a human, and I watched Allura just like that -” he snapped his fingers “- look like she’s in costume for some kind of fantasy movie, and there’s still a part of me that’s thinking ‘of course magic isn’t real.’”

“I’m sure it’s a lot to take in,” Allura replied, not unsympathetically.

“You’re really good at understatement today, Allura.”

She rolled her eyes at that, but with a smile, and took her phone out of her pocket. “I’m going to contact Coran now, if that’s alright with you, Shiro.”

He nodded his assent, so Allura tapped the screen and started typing. Shiro wondered why she didn’t call, but he was relieved to have a little break in the conversation. This was a lot to handle all at once, and he was filled with restless, nervous energy – although that may have been partially due to the moon still being so close to full.

He couldn’t even drum his fingers on the table anymore. His right hand was gone, and the gesture didn’t feel natural with his left.

There was a woosh sound of Allura sending the message, and Shiro took a deep breath. Now three people knew.

It was sort of hard to get past the old, deeply-ingrained part of him that said he should take this secret to the grave, but it was a relief, too. He had never _liked_ having to hide it, lying to his friends either directly or by omission, always being scared of doing or saying something that would let them find out. Now he wouldn’t have to do that anymore. Not with Keith, not with Allura, or Coran…

Maybe they should tell the other three at the garage, too. They were the ones who had known him as a dog, and would have the most reason to be confused and suspicious about his reappearance. He’d only known Lance and Hunk peripherally before, they’d been hired shortly before his disappearance, and he only knew Katie – Pidge, as she now preferred to be called – as his freshman year roommate Matt’s younger sister.

They all seemed trustworthy, though. He’d had no one who knew about him since his parents had died. Or at least, no one on the same continent. But a half-dozen people that he trusted? As scary as having people who knew his secret was to consider, it also felt good.

It might even be like having a family again. Shiro liked the idea of that.

After several minutes of Allura’s rapid-fire messaging back and forth with Coran and a brief phone conversation, they agreed to all meet up the day after next at Allura and Coran’s house. Shiro was glad for the brief respite. He’d been prepared to just head there that night and get it over with, but Keith had noticed how stressed and uncomfortable he was and suggested that they wait a day or two.

(It might be just the giddy high of new love, but Shiro would have sworn he fell for Keith even more every time he opened his mouth.)

Allura stayed for two hours, and their talk got steadily more comfortable and casual. Shiro talked about his past with no filters for once, telling her and Keith about full moons spent running free with his parents, about how the world was simultaneously duller to his eyes and vivid to his nose and ears when he was a wolf, about _family_ and _pack_ and how they overlapped.

Allura told them about magic, about her family, about what she’d learned from her father and Coran, about the different kinds of Fae she’d met, and even demonstrated a few small spells – colored lights dancing in her palms, lighting a candle by blowing on it, and making a breeze rush around the room to tug at the curtains on the windows.

Shiro found the demonstrations equal parts delightful and disturbing. Seeing Allura do magic like that was amazing, but it pulled at something in the back of his mind that he couldn’t remember and wasn’t sure he wanted to remember.

After a while, though, Allura needed to get home. He and Keith walked with her out to her car, and she turned around to hug Shiro tightly enough it was hard to breathe, but he didn’t complain. After a moment she released him, then she turned and hugged Keith the same way.

“I’ll see you both on Friday,” she said, “But if anything, and I mean _anything_ , strange happens before then, _please call me_. Even if it seems insignificant.”

“I will,” Shiro promised.

Allura gave him a misty-eyed smile, hugged him again, and got in her car. Shiro watched her go, a mix of hard-to-define emotions swirling in his chest.

Keith wrapped his arm around Shiro’s waist and gave him a squeeze, “You okay?”

“I think so,” Shiro said, “It’s just sinking in that nothing’s ever going to go back to the way it was before. That’s not necessarily a _bad_ thing, but… it’s a lot to deal with, y’know?”

“I get it,” said Keith. He kissed Shiro’s shoulder in a reassuring way, “The moon will be up soon.”

“Yeah?” Shiro asked.

“I looked up the time of moonrise tonight. I figured that’s the sort of thing I should keep track of, if I’m dating a werewolf.” He smiled as he said it, looking pleased with himself.

_Adorable_ , Shiro thought, and leaned down to catch Keith’s lips in a sweet kiss.

Keith pulled away after a few seconds and said, “So if you want to change tonight, then you don’t have to wait that long.”

Shiro froze. He couldn’t help it. Keith suggesting casually that he change forms, just because he might _want_ to, was too shocking. Even with Keith’s easy acceptance, he hadn’t expected _this_.

Keith looked a little uncomfortable, “I mean, you did say something before about how the full moon makes you restless, and it’s still almost full. It’s not like you have to.”

“I – I do want to, I’m just -” Shiro stammered for a second. He shut his mouth, took a deep breath, and tried again, “I’m just scared of what will happen if I get stuck again.”

“If you do, this time I’ll know who and what you are, and now we know two people who can do actual, _literal_ magic and we’ll find a way to fix it,” said Keith, utterly confident, “If you don’t want to, that’s okay. I just don’t want you to be _scared_ to do it. I don’t want you to ever be afraid.”

“Keith...” He meant it. Keith’s dark blue eyes were sincere and filled with love, and Shiro thought he might start crying if he kept looking into them, so he hugged him tightly instead. He pressed his face into the crook of Keith’s neck and said, “God, you’re… it’s like you came straight out of my daydreams. You accept all of this so easily, like me being a werewolf is no bigger of a concern than if I – I – I had a _food allergy_ or something. It’s like you’re too good to be true.”

Keith was quiet for a moment, just hugging Shiro back. Then he murmured, “That’s how I always felt about you, y’know.”

He pulled back a bit, so Shiro could see his face, and explained, “When we first met, every time that you did something for me and showed me that you really cared about me, I would always think ‘this is too good to be true, he wants something from me, I just don’t know what yet’. I kept waiting to see when you were going to hand me the bill for all your kindness.”

Keith smiled at him, his expression almost adoring. “But you never did. Everything you did for me was unconditional. I’ve _never_ had that from anyone but you. So, Shiro, you have to understand how much I _mean it_ when I say that I love you for _everything_ you are, even the things I didn’t know about until recently.”

And there went the waterworks. Shiro wasn’t just on the verge of tears, he was actually crying now. “You’re perfect, Keith.”

“I’m not. I’m impulsive and I have a bad temper and I push away people who only want to help me,” Keith said matter-of-factly. He smiled, and wiped a tear from Shiro’s cheek, “But I love you.”

Shiro couldn’t think of anything to say in response, so he kissed Keith again, passionately this time. Keith kisses were inexperienced but enthusiastic, and Shiro loved the way Keith responded to every touch.

After a few minutes or so, Shiro felt rather than saw the moon come up over the horizon. The sensation of moonlight on his skin made him shiver, and he finally pulled away from Keith. He looked toward the moon, thinking.

“Shiro?” Keith asked.

“I… I think I do want to change,” he said, unable to deny it, “At least for a little while. Go for a run.”

There was a brief flash of disappointment on Keith’s face, but he nodded. “Okay. If that’s what you want.”

“Will you come with me?” Shiro asked.

Keith looked surprised, but then he smiled, “Yes. Absolutely.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, while writing the last part of this chapter: Is this too sappy? Should I tone it down a bit?  
> Me @ myself: This is already a sappy, self-indulgent AU. Treat yo' self.
> 
> Next chapter features the return of wolfy Shiro! I'm sure you guys have been waiting for that.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *shows up 20 minutes late with Starbucks* So how about those season 7 spoilers, y'all? I'm shooketh, and here to celebrate with my longest chapter yet, which is mostly fluff and smut.
> 
> Please enjoy Shiro and Keith being completely smitten with each other.

Preparing to change this time was both familiar and not. Undressing and folding his clothes was familiar, but the part where Keith came up and put them in a backpack was new.

Shiro looked at him curiously, and Keith held up the backpack, “When you decide that you’re done, you can just change back wherever we are and we won’t have to walk all the way back to the house first. I’ve got some snacks and water and stuff, too, since you said changing makes you hungry.”

For a moment, the thought of proposing to Keith right then and there flitted through Shiro’s head. A ridiculous thought, because they had been dating for barely twenty-four hours at this point, and everything was still chaotic. Maybe someday, when they had some idea of the shape of the future.

“You’re amazing,” he said instead, “And I love you so much.”

Keith went a little pink at the praise, and said, “It’s not that big a deal...”

Shiro just smiled and shook his head. Maybe objectively speaking a backpack with clothes and snacks wasn’t a big deal, but having someone there to care for him during a change _was_. It meant more than Shiro had words to express.

He looked toward the moon, still almost full, bathing him in its magic, and he could almost feel his fur itching under his skin. He took a deep breath, braced himself against the pain of changing, and dropped to his knees.

The moonlight was very bright, so the change was so rapid he barely had time to register the pain before it was done. He laid down for a moment and panted, trying to re-orient himself. Adjusting to the differences in his senses always took a moment, particularly all the smells that he could barely even notice in human shape.

“Shiro? Are you okay?” Keith asked, sounding a little concerned. He knelt next to him.

Shiro turned his head and licked Keith’s face, wagging his tail enthusiastically.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

Shiro nodded, and got to his feet. He stretched fore and aft, and shook himself a bit, adjusting to the shape. Then he put his nose to the ground and sniffed, trying to determine if there was a scent that was interesting enough to follow. There was nothing fresh enough to be exciting, so he shrugged, picked a direction, and started moving. He wanted to take off full speed, but he kept it to a quick walk to make sure Keith was keeping pace with him.

He needn’t have worried. They’d walked for barely a minute before Keith said, his voice full of playful challenge, “I thought you wanted to _run_ , Shiro.”

Shiro paused and met Keith’s eyes. Keith grinned at him, and Shiro let his mouth fall open in a canine smile. He dropped into a play-bow and wagged his tail, then he turned his back on Keith and _ran_.

Keith’s startled but happy laugh behind him was a wonderful sound, made even better when it was followed by the pounding of Keith’s boots on the hard dirt. Even on three legs, Shiro was fast enough to keep well ahead of Keith, but he was careful to not let his lead get too big. He wanted Keith to have a chance of catching him, that was what made this fun.

He ran and dodged and jumped out of the way, occasionally letting Keith get close enough to touch him, but not actually catch him. He only slowed down when Keith started to seem like he was getting tired and frustrated instead of having fun. He turned back to Keith and whined, a little concerned.

That was when Keith tackled him to the ground and pinned him, and Shiro let out an indignant yelp.

“Gotcha!” cried Keith, grinning, “Seriously, Shiro? That’s the oldest trick in the book.”

Shiro tried to call Keith a dirty cheater, but he only let out the garbled mix of whining barks that his voicebox could make it this form. Keith seemed to get the general idea, though, because he laughed and kissed Shiro on the top of his head.

“You love me,” he said.

Shiro wagged his tail. He did.

Keith let him up a few moments later, petting his head as he did. Shiro got to his feet and gave the air a sniff. Something smelled good… after a moment, he pinpointed it as one of the snacks in Keith’s backpack. It smelled like beef jerky. He stood on his hind legs for a bit to nose at the backpack and whine. The short run had been fun, but he was hungry.

“Oh, want a snack?” Keith asked.

Shiro nodded and dropped down to all three paws again. Keith obligingly took off the backpack and opened it up, and Shiro immediately stuck his head in, grabbed the bag containing the beef jerky, and pulled it out. It had popped open, which was probably why he’d suddenly been able to smell it.

“Yeah, I thought you’d go for that. Here.”

Keith took the bag from Shiro and pulled out a handful of pieces of jerky, which Shiro ate eagerly. He ended up eating the entire bag from Keith’s hand, except for a few pieces that Keith ate himself.

Shiro stuck his nose back in the backpack and found one of the bottles of water. Keith took it from him and opened it, then stopped with a look of extreme annoyance on his face.

“Oh, dammit.”

Shiro made a questioning noise.

“I forgot to bring a bowl for you to drink out of. Stupid!”

Shiro laughed – a weird sound in this form, but he couldn’t help himself. Keith was berating himself for having forgotten one thing when he’d already done more to take care of Shiro tonight than anyone ever had? Even his parents, when they had gone out as wolves together, had never put so much effort into preparing.

Keith looked at him, worried by the noise, then he frowned, “Are you… _laughing_ at me?”

Shiro nodded, and nosed the bottle until Keith got the hint and began to pour it slowly into his cupped palm. Shiro was able to drink it that way without too much trouble, and without too much of it spilling onto the dirt. When he changed back later, he’d have to make a point to tell Keith that bottled water in and of itself was kind of a luxury in this situation.

After the snack break was finished, Shiro decided to run again. He didn’t goad Keith into chasing him this time, he just wanted the joy of the wind in his face and the dirt underneath his paws. He ran in large, aimless circles around Keith, so that he could always see him out of the corner of his eye, and Keith seemed happy to watch him run. Every few laps, he would come back to Keith and walk beside him for a while, until he got the urge to run again.

He caught the scent of a fox and chased it for a little bit – not out of any real desire to catch it, foxes were just fun to chase – and gave up when it went to ground, disappearing into its den. By that time, he’d tired himself out pretty thoroughly, and he made his way back to Keith, panting heavily.

“Getting tired, Shiro?” Keith asked.

Shiro nodded.

“Why don’t we rest for a bit?” Keith suggested.

He opened his backpack again. He pulled out a blanket and spread it on the ground, then sat down on it. Shiro came up next to him and collapsed onto his belly, panting. That had been _way_ more fun than any walk on a leash had ever been. Keith petted him, running his fingers through the fur at the scruff of Shiro’s neck, gentle and soothing.

Despite what had happened to him, despite his missing leg and missing time, at this moment, Shiro felt like the luckiest and happiest person in the world.

“Want some more water?” Keith asked, pulling out another water bottle.

Shiro shook his head. He wanted to cool off a little bit before he could think about drinking. Keith set the bottle down and Shiro took the opportunity to climb into his lap. Keith hugged him.

“Good dog,” he said teasingly, and Shiro rolled his eyes.

Keith laughed, and Shiro huffed and settled down laying across Keith’s legs. This was _wonderful._ The best part of full moons when he had been a kid was after the first bit of running, when he and his parents would collapse together in a pile. Even though his extended family had always been somewhat estranged, Shiro remembered his trips to Japan fondly because running with his family and curling up in a pile with so many other werewolves satisfied some deep instinct inside him.

Wolves weren’t meant to be solitary animals, and neither were humans. Shiro had been a lone wolf for much too long, and now he wouldn’t have to be anymore.

“You look happy,” Keith said, “I’m glad.”

Shiro licked his face and Keith didn’t sputter or push him away the way he had when he thought Shiro was a dog. Instead he took Shiro’s head in his hands and kissed him on the nose, which was an odd sensation, but not unpleasant.

Shiro considered it. Usually on a full moon night, he’d change as soon as the moon came up and spend all night in wolf form, only changing back shortly before the moon set. He’d only been out for an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Changing back now would be awfully quick, and he’d probably be too tired for another change tonight.

But so what if it had only been a short time? He’d been a wolf for at least two months very recently, and he really, _really_ wanted to kiss Keith properly. A canine mouth just wasn’t suited for that.

He stood up and took a couple of steps away from Keith – being touched _while_ he was changing was something that had always kind of freaked him out – and changed into human form. It was still fast, but more painful this time, and he collapsed onto the blanket with a groan.

“Shiro?” Keith cried, sounding worried.

“’m fine,” Shiro mumbled, face pressed against the blanket. He felt Keith’s hand come to rest on his back, and he rolled onto his side to look at him, “It’s always more painful going from wolf to human. I don’t know why.”

“You’re sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah,” Shiro smiled at Keith, sure that his expression must be a goofy, lovestruck grin, “I’ll take that water now, though.”

Keith opened the bottle and passed it to him, and Shiro downed two thirds of it before pausing to take a breath. He looked at Keith, who was still watching him with a slightly worried expression, and he smiled reassuringly.

“I promise I’m fine,” Shiro said, “Better than, even. Having you here for this was wonderful.”

Keith smiled at him, “You looked like you were having fun.”

“I was. More fun than I’ve had in a long time. Thank you for being here with me.”

Keith surged forward and kissed him. Shiro dropped the water bottle in shock, but quickly recovered enough to wrap his arm around Keith’s shoulders and kiss him back. It was desperate and sloppy and made Shiro feel like a fire had been lit in his stomach.

Keith was holding him like he thought someone might try to physically yank Shiro out of his arms, his kisses hot and possessive, and Shiro let Keith push him down to lay on the blanket. Keith had been aggressive the last time, too, and he didn’t mind at all. Keith’s knee was between his thighs, and Shiro was suddenly very aware of the fact he was naked. And Keith wasn’t. That seemed like a situation that should be corrected.

He tugged on the back of Keith’s shirt, pulling it up, and slipped his hand down the back of Keith’s genes to squeeze his ass. Keith broke the kiss with a gasp.

Shiro grinned at him, “In a bit of a rush, huh?”

Keith kissed him again, a quick brush of his lips, “Like I was going to be able to wait with you _looking_ at me like that.”

“Like what?” asked Shiro innocently.

Keith’s smile was soft and his eyes were full of love as he said, “Like you love me.”

“Uh-oh. There’s nothing I can do about that. Am I going to have to wear a blindfold to keep you from jumping me?” Shiro asked with a laugh.

“It probably wouldn’t help,” Keith admitted, “’Cause, you know, you’re also naked and really hot. And also I think I might be kind of into that?”

“We can try it later. Right now, I really want to admire the view,” Shiro tugged at the waistband of Keith’s pants, “But there’s all this _clothing_ in the way.”

He leaned up a bit to whisper in Keith’s ear, “I want to see you silhouetted against the stars.”

Even in the moonlight, he could see how deeply Keith flushed. Shiro was sure he was blushing, too, having said something so… romance novel poetic out loud, but Keith inspired those kinds of thoughts, and he deserved to hear them.

Keith dropped his head to thud against Shiro’s shoulder. “Oh god, I’m in love with a dork.”

“No take-backs,” Shiro teased. He moved his hand to the front of Keith’s pants and cupped him through his jeans, making him moan. After a few seconds of fumbling, he managed to get Keith’s pants unbuttoned and pulled the zipper down, making Keith gasp his name.

“Good?” he asked, rubbing Keith through his underwear.

“Yeah…” Keith said breathily, “Hang on, let me...”

He pulled away from Shiro and Shiro sat up to watch him quickly shed the rest of his clothes. Then he grabbed the backpack and reached into it. He rummaged around for a few seconds, then pulled out the box of condoms and the lube he’d gotten at the drugstore earlier.

Shiro stared at him, “You planned ahead, I see.”

Keith looked a little embarrassed. “I didn’t know how you’d feel afterward, but… I didn’t want to waste the opportunity if you were up to it.” He moved back to sit in Shiro’s lap and leaned in, so close his lips brushed Shiro’s as he spoke, “I want you so bad, Shiro.”

Shiro was pretty sure he felt his brain short-circuit, because he’d experienced this exact scenario in his dreams once, and had woken up sweating with sticky sheets like he was still a teenager in the throes of puberty. He wasn’t sure what to say or do for a moment, but the dilemma was quickly resolved when Keith kissed him again.

Shiro had kissed plenty of people before, but he didn’t think anyone had ever kissed him like Keith did. He was a fast learner, and even though they hadn’t shared that many kisses yet, he was already figuring out what Shiro liked most. It was a good thing Shiro was already sitting, because Keith’s kisses made him feel like his legs were made of jelly.

Keith pulled back, and Shiro had to catch his breath from more than just the kisses. He looked almost ethereal in the pale, silvery light of the moon, and the stars floating in the sky behind his head seemed like a halo. Keith looked like an angel.

“You’re beautiful,” Shiro murmured, knowing the word was inadequate.

Keith grinned, “You’re not bad yourself.” He ran his hand over Shiro’s chest and down his abs, tracing the muscles there, and then hesitated for a moment.

“Keith?”

“Can you lean back for me?” Keith asked. He reached for the box of condoms and pulled one out.

Shiro did as Keith asked, leaning back and bracing himself on his arm. Keith opened the condom wrapper a little clumsily – whether from inexperience with it or his own excitement, Shiro didn’t know. He groaned loudly when Keith held his cock and rolled the condom onto it. Even that simple touch felt amazing, and it seemed to make Keith more confident.

“I want to suck you off,” Keith said, scooting back to kneel in front of Shiro instead of sitting on his lap, “Is that okay?”

“Oh, _god_ yes,” Shiro replied. He’d wanted it last night, too, but wasn't willing to risk unprotected sex with such a giant gap in his memory. Being responsible had made him feel like he was going to die, but now he didn’t need to hold back.

Keith bent down, his face close enough that Shiro could feel his breath on his cock as he admitted, “I haven’t actually done this before, so you’re going to have to tell me what does and doesn’t work for you, okay?’

Shiro chuckled, “Just do what feels good and don’t worry about trying to impress me. There’s no such thing as a bad blowjob.”

Keith snorted with laughter.

“What?” Shiro asked.

“I know that’s not true,” Keith said, looking up at Shiro with barely contained laughter, “Matt told that story about you and your ex.”

Shiro winced, both from embarrassment and from the memory. Matt had come home early and startled them, and Shiro had spent the next twenty minutes hiding in the half-bath with an ice pack while his boyfriend had apologized and Matt had laughed at both of them like the absolute asshole he could be. He’d gotten drunk and told the story to everyone at Shiro’s New Year’s party last year – two years ago.

“Keith, if you want this to continue, then bringing up that story is a really bad way to do it.”

Keith giggled, but he opened his mouth and licked the head of Shiro’s cock, and Shiro promptly forgot about being annoyed. He swirled his tongue around the head and wrapped his hand around the base of Shiro’s cock.

“Keith,” Shiro groaned as Keith sucked on the tip, “That’s good.”

Keith hummed and took a little more in his mouth, bobbing his head. For a man who said he’d never done this before, he was good at it. Maybe it was because he hadn’t dated anyone since college, or maybe it was because it was _Keith_ and Shiro was head over heels for him, but no one had ever made him feel like this before.

“Keith, oh fuck, _Keith,_ that’s so good, just like that,” Shiro babbled helplessly, already overwhelmed. It only got worse when Keith looked up at him, his eyes open wide and lips stretched around Shiro’s cock in a way that Shiro had never seen outside of porn.

Keith pulled back, letting Shiro’s dick slide out of his mouth with an obscene, wet pop. Shiro groaned at the loss.

“If I get you off like this, do you think you could manage a second round?” he asked.

“What?” Shiro asked, a little slow on the uptake.

“Sucking your dick has been one of my biggest fantasies for a long time,” Keith said, “But I also really want you to fuck me, so I want to know if it’s got to be one or the other tonight.”

Shiro groaned, wondering where Keith’s earlier embarrassment had gone and where this sudden (very sexy) confidence had come from. “Jesus Christ, Keith, I think you’re going to kill me.”

“Not my plan at all,” Keith said with a grin.

Shiro laid down so that he could use his hand for something other than propping himself up. He reached up to run his fingers through Keith’s hair, and Keith sighed happily, a sound that turned into a moan when Shiro gripped it and pulled gently.

“Fuck, _Shiro...”_ Keith moaned.

“You like that?” Shiro asked. Between this and his comment about the blindfold earlier, it seemed like Keith definitely had a few kinks.

Keith nodded, his eyes heavy-lidded, and he let out another moan when Shiro pulled his hair again. “I want you.”

“What do you want, baby?” Shiro asked, “Tell me and I’ll give it to you.”

“I want you to fuck me,” Keith said decisively, “I want to do everything else, too, but right now I want your cock inside me.”

Shiro’s mouth didn’t know whether to water to go dry at that. A little dumbly, he said, “Okay.”

Keith grabbed the jar of lube and opened the lid. He fumbled with the foil seal inside a bit and cursed when he couldn’t get it open. Shiro laughed, and sat up to help him. He held the jar steady for Keith as Keith tore off the foil and dipped his fingers in.

Keith sat back and spread his legs, giving Shiro a view that was amazing even in the moonlight, although he wished that there was enough light for him to see properly when Keith started to touch himself. He gave his cock a few quick strokes, then moved his land lower and pressed a finger into his hole, making a pained noise as he did.

“Hey, slow down. There’s no need to rush,” Shiro said. He was eager, too, but he certainly didn’t want Keith to hurt himself.

“Sorry, I’m just… I’m tired of waiting,” replied Keith, and did something with his fingers that Shiro couldn’t make out in the dim light, but made him moan loudly.

“Have you ever done this before?” Shiro asked.

Keith hesitated before answering, and Shiro tried to ignore the feeling of possessiveness he got at the thought of Keith having sex with someone else. He was a healthy, attractive, adult man, it was _fine_ if he had dated before.

“Not with another person,” Keith answered finally, “But I’ve fingered myself before -” he let out a small moan “- a lot.”

_Fuck,_ that was sexy. Shiro made a noise somewhere between a groan and a growl. “What did you think about when you did it?”

“You,” Keith said promptly, “I always thought about you.”

“Fuck, Keith!” Shiro groaned. He coated his fingers with the lube, and rubbed them a bit to warm it up. “Be more specific.”

“You’re the only person I’ve ever wanted this way. I’ve thought about having you every way. Thought about you pinning me against a wall, and – and laying you out flat on your back and riding your cock. I – _ah!,_ oh god, _Shiro!_ ” Keith wailed as Shiro carefully worked his finger in alongside Keith’s.

“Tell me more,” Shiro encouraged him, “You sound so good, Keith.”

“I wanted to fuck you, too, I thought about having you on your knees for me – oh, fuck, Shiro, that feels so good!”

Shiro had never really thought of himself as into dirty talk before, but hearing Keith gasp and moan out his fantasies, even in a not very explicit way, was turning him on a ridiculous amount. He pushed his finger in deeper and Keith groaned loudly.

It was a little awkward doing this left-handed, and he couldn’t stroke himself at the same time, but Keith had no complaints. For that matter, Keith had no coherent _words,_ and when Shiro thought he was relaxed enough and pulled his fingers out, he made a sound of protest.

“How do you want to do this, baby?” Shiro asked.

“Huh?” Keith replied, eloquently. He blinked in confusion, then comprehension downed on his face, “Oh! I, uh… I want to ride you.”

Shiro kissed him again before laying back down. He didn’t think he had ever been more aroused in his life as Keith straddled him. He put his hand on Keith’s thigh and could feel the tremor in his muscles as he began to slowly sink down onto Shiro’s cock. Keith made a noise that sounded almost _broken_ with need, and Shiro moved his hand to Keith’s hip and stroked it soothingly.

“Easy, go slow,” Shiro said softly, “Don’t hurt yourself, we’ve got plenty of time.”

It was a reminder to himself, too, because he wanted to thrust up hard and fast into that tight heat, but he wouldn’t risk hurting Keith.

Keith moaned, lifted up a bit, and sank down a little bit farther, taking a little more of him in, making Shiro gasp. He repeated that action a few more times until he was fully seated, his ass flush against Shiro’s pelvis. He was panting, breathing hard like he’d been running a race, and Shiro could feel the tremor in Keith’s legs.

“You okay?” he asked.

Keith nodded, “It’s just… it’s _so much_ , Shiro. Just – just give me a second.”

Shiro nodded, and held still for an agonizing thirty seconds (he counted them in his head to keep himself under control) until Keith began to move, gasping as he lifted up and slid back down on Shiro’s cock.

Shiro rolled his hips experimentally, and Keith almost wailed, throwing his head back. His sweat-slick hair and skin shone silver in the moonlight, and everywhere Keith touched him was hot like fire, and Shiro wanted to burn.

“Keith, Keith, god, you’re so beautiful, perfect for me, I love you so much, you feel so good,” Shiro babbled, unable to think of anything more coherent than a string of praises as Keith rode him.

He wasn’t going to last long like this, but Shiro was determined to make Keith come first. He moved his hand from Keith’s hip to wrap it around his cock and stroke him. It was clumsy and inelegant, he was sure, but it made Keith moan anyway.

It was a near thing, but Keith did come first, his back arched and mouth open but barely making a sound (somehow that was even hotter than his moans). He clenched around Shiro as he did, so hard it was almost painful, and as his release splattered on Shiro’s stomach, Shiro came too.

Keith braced his hands on Shiro’s chest, breathing hard and leaning on him heavily. After a few seconds, he looked up and met Shiro’s eyes with a satisfied, almost dazed smile.

“Shiro… _fuck,_ that was...”

“Good?” Shiro asked. He hoped it had been good for Keith, too, because Shiro had never felt anything better. Was it possible for sex to be a religious experience? Because even as his breathing evened out and he became aware of the rock underneath the blanket that was jabbing painfully into his back, Shiro felt like he had been blessed.

“That was better than I ever imagined,” Keith groaned, and carefully eased himself off Shiro’s softening cock, “Oh, fuck, I’m gonna feel that tomorrow.”

Shiro sat up, looking Keith over. Even if Keith had fingered himself before, that was his first time and it had been pretty intense. “Are you hurt or just sore?”

“Just sore,” Keith reassured him, “It’s a good kind of sore, I promise.”

“Good,” Shiro said, and kissed him gently, “I’m glad I could make it good for you. I love you.”

“Love you too,” Keith said. He rested his head against Shiro’s chest and sighed happily, “I have wet wipes in the bag, too, but I don’t think I can move yet.”

Shiro laughed, more from surprise than humor, “Wow, you thought _everything_ through, didn’t you?”

“Be prepared, right?”

“I’m pretty sure the Boy Scouts never intended that motto to be used in this context.”

Keith pulled back and looked up at him with a grin, “Yeah, but I don’t care. I hated the Boy Scouts.”

Keith had told him about that, how one of his foster families (the third one, Shiro thought, but he wasn’t sure) had signed him up for the Boy Scouts even though Keith didn’t want to be a part of it, and how he’d done everything in his power to get himself kicked out of the troop. He’d managed it in less than a month.

Shiro kissed him again, “You’re amazing, Keith.”

“I love you.”

“I know,” Shiro said softly. He kissed Keith’s forehead, reveling in the scent of his sweaty hair, “That’s amazing, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow I will be leaving for Pennsic, and though I'm planning on writing while I'm there, my internet access will be very limited, so it'll be at least two weeks before the next update.
> 
> The next chapter will be back to Keith's POV and the plot. Don't worry, though, the fluff isn't going away.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back from Pennsic! I had a great time, and I hope you'll forgive the delay for this chapter since the writer was getting a much-needed mental health recharge.
> 
> This is a fairly short chapter, but it's got a lot of plot to it. (And some domestic fluff, 'cause I know what y'all are here for.)

Keith had a suspicious feeling that it kind of weird for him to be so blissfully happy, given that he’d just learned that things like werewolves and elves and literal fucking _magic_ existed, but he was. This was the kind of thing that ought to turn the world completely on its head, and it had, but he was really too happy to spend much time worrying about the implications. Well, he was worried, but it was hard to get emotionally invested in being worried about anything when it was the third day in a row that he had woken up with Shiro in his arms.

Shiro was already awake and looking at Keith fondly. When Keith’s eyes focused met Shiro’s, Shiro smiled at him.

“Good morning, beautiful,” Shiro said, and leaned down to give Keith an affectionate peck on the lips.

Keith smiled at him, “You have weird taste, but I’m glad about it.”

“Keith, have you ever _seen_ yourself?” Shiro asked, “You are absolutely gorgeous.”

“If you’ve got a thing for bedhead and morning breath, I guess,” Keith teased. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe Shiro, but it was funny to see him get so adamant about Keith being flawless even when he was objectively a mess.

Shiro laughed, “Baby, your bedhead looks like a stylist spent two hours getting it perfectly ‘artfully tousled’ for a fashion magazine.”

“You’re biased, but thank you.”

Keith checked the clock, saw that it was a quarter after nine, and sat up and stretched with a yawn, “I’m going to make some breakfast. Anything specific you want?”

“Pancakes?”

Keith grinned at him, “So was all your flattery just to butter me up so I’d make pancakes for you?”

“Absolutely,” replied Shiro, completely deadpan, “There’s no other reason I would ever compliment you. It’s all so that I can get pancakes.”

Keith snorted, “I knew it. Dogs only love you for your food.”

“And petting. Don’t forget the petting.”

Keith laughed and leaned over to give Shiro a kiss, “You’re ridiculous. I’ll make pancakes if you’ll get coffee started?”

Shiro nodded his agreement, and Keith got out of bed. He brushed his teeth, put on a shirt, endured Shiro’s good-natured fussing about remembering to take his antibiotic, and started to make the pancake batter. Shiro brought him a cup of coffee, prepared the way Keith liked it with a little bit of milk and a spoonful of honey.

“Thanks,” Keith said, and Shiro kissed his cheek.

They spent the day lazily, some of it in conversation, but a lot of it in the kind of comfortable, companionable silence they’d always been able to have with each other. Shiro caught up on a TV show he liked, and while Keith had intended to watch it with him, he instead ending up falling asleep with his head on Shiro’s thigh. He woke up to Shiro stroking his hair and looking down at him adoringly, TV show long forgotten.

It was all so very domestic, and Keith had never been happier. He had Shiro back, and Shiro loved him back, and that made every worrying aspect of the last three days feel rather less worrisome. Keith felt like the two of them could handle anything, as long as they were together.

Although he had to admit that it seemed weird that things weren’t, well, _weirder_ …

When he and Shiro arrived at Allura’s house that evening as planned, Allura greeted them both with a hug, and she looked normal again. Although now he knew that ‘normal’ for Allura was actually a disguise, Keith wondered if it was difficult or uncomfortable for her to hide.

“Come in!” she said, smiling brightly at them, “I figured that we could order in for dinner. Coran offered to cook, but…”

Shiro laughed, and Keith grinned as well. Coran’s cooking usually only ever reached the dizzying heights of ‘edible’. Not everyone could be Hunk, he supposed.

Keith took Shiro’s hand, gave it a reassuring squeeze, and stepped through the door. He had never been inside her house before, and the fact that everything was so ordinary kept kind of throwing him off. The house was simple, comfortable and well-lived-in. The decorations were pretty ordinary, too, nothing occult or even calendar-fantasy themed; here a photo of the Grand Canyon, there a small mirror with a nice frame.

“Shiro!” Coran called, coming out of what Keith guessed was the living room with a stack of books in his arms.

Keith did a double take when he saw him. Logically, he supposed if Coran was the same as Allura, he would have a different appearance, too, but it was still strange to see. His looks weren’t quite as dramatically different from ‘normal’ as Allura’s. He had the pointed ears and marks beneath his eyes – his were blue – but his hair was still red and his mustache was as ridiculous as ever.

“I’m very glad to see you again, and very curious about what happened to you!” he said, “I’ve got some spellbooks that contain relevant information. I thought we’d start with the basics, and narrow it down a bit.”

Spellbooks. Keith had never actually considered what spellbooks would look like before that exact moment, but if he had, he supposed he would have expected them to be old, leather-bound grimoires. The stack of books Coran plopped down on the table, though, were laminated hardcover books with generic cover art that looked for all the world like college textbooks, except for the titles. Keith saw “Intermediate Transformation”, “History of the Fae Realms”, and a slim trade paperback book labeled simply “Werewolves”.

“I can’t believe didn’t recognize you for a werewolf!” Coran said, “With all the experience I have, and how obvious it was that you weren’t an ordinary dog, but that’s what I get for jumping to conclusions, I guess.”

“Uh… what did you think I was?” Shiro asked, looking a little perturbed.

“I thought you were a familiar,” Coran answered.

“A familiar?” Keith echoed.

“A companion animal to a magician,” Coran explained, “Almost any animal can be one, and it makes them more intelligent. You clearly understood every word we were saying, but you were pretty good at acting like a normal dog, so I assumed that you’d had magical influence.”

Shiro didn’t seem to know how to respond to that, and Keith wasn’t sure what to say either. The silence stretched out for a few awkward seconds before Coran continued speaking.

“Anyway, I have the short version from Allura, but I’d like to hear the whole story from you, with as many details as possible, please!”

Shiro sighed, then began the story. Coran interrupted him several times with clarifying questions (“You were born a werewolf?” “Was there anything unusual about your transformation that night?” “Where precisely were you when you woke up?”), but it didn’t take long for Shiro to reach the part of the story that Keith had been there for.

“And then when I got to Keith’s house, I just curled up on the front step and waited,” Shiro said with a shrug, “I wasn’t sure exactly what to do, but I know what a soft spot Keith’s got for dogs. And for stray animals in general. I hoped that given enough time, I’d be able to change back again.”

Keith took Shiro’s hand and gave it a squeeze, and Shiro gave him a soft smile.

“Interesting,” Coran said, stroking his mustache thoughtfully, “Did you have any periods during the time you were living with Keith where you forgot who or what you were?”

Shiro frowned, looking thoughtful, and said, “Sometimes when I woke up in the morning or after a nap, I was kind of disoriented, and it took me a bit to remember what had happened. Is that the sort of thing you mean?”

“I think that’s normal, considering what you’ve been through,” Allura said.

“Yes,” Coran said, nodding towards Allura, “Everything I was able to find about werewolves getting stuck in wolf form was about them going feral. Losing touch with their human minds and forgetting who they used to be.”

Shiro shook his head, “No, it was nothing like that. I knew who I was the whole time.”

“I didn’t really expect that it was that,” Coran said, “Especially since as far as I could find, that’s not something that happens to werewolves who were born as werewolves.”

“It was more like...” Shiro trailed off for a moment, “Like when you haven’t done something in so long you’ve lost your muscle memory for it? I couldn’t feel the moonlight, and it felt as if… as if my body had just forgotten that it could be a different shape.”

“That tracks with what you told me earlier,” Allura said, “If you were right and it was Keith’s blood that triggered your ability to change again, then I’d assume it was almost like it reminded you of being human.”

“That’s certainly part of it,” Coran grinned, “But I think it’s also in no small part due to the fact that Keith loves you. There’s no force more powerful or transformative than love!”

“Are you saying that I literally saved Shiro with the power of love?” Keith asked incredulously.

“Why is that hard to believe?” Allura asked, “Magic is largely fueled by belief and emotion, and Coran is right. Love can be a very deep source of magic.”

Keith felt his face go furiously hot. Of course he loved Shiro, more than anyone or anything else, but the way they were describing it made it sound like something out of a cartoon aimed at ten-year-old kids. He glanced over at Shiro and saw that he was blushing, too, which made Keith feel a little better.

“But none of this gives us any clue what happened to Shiro in the first place,” Keith said quickly. Moving along was his usual way of dealing with embarrassment. “Or why he can’t remember anything.”

Coran nodded solemnly, “I have a theory about that, but since it’s been a while since you… ‘woke up’, so to speak, we’ll need Allura to confirm it. The traces will probably be too faint for me to sense at this point.”

“Traces of what?” Shiro asked, sounding apprehensive.

“Magical interference,” Allura answered, as though that response explained everything perfectly instead of raising more questions. “Coran thinks it’s likely your amnesia is from magic instead of mundane causes.”

“So… someone removed my memories by magic?” Shiro looked very disturbed by the idea, and Keith couldn’t blame him.

“Almost certainly not like that,” Coran said, “If it was a purposeful spell, I would have been able to detect it the moment you walked in the door! But since your memory loss is probably a side effect of something else, Allura’s the only one who might be able to sense it. She has more raw magical power than anyone I’ve ever met, with the possible exception of her father.”

Allura took a step towards Shiro, her hands raised, “Is this okay? I promise I won’t be reading your mind or anything like that, just seeing what kind of magic I can detect on you.”

Shiro hesitated for a long enough moment that Keith opened his mouth to call the whole thing off, but then he nodded, “Alright. Just… promise me it’s not gonna hurt or anything?”

Allura smiled at him, “It might feel odd, but it shouldn’t be uncomfortable, and it _certainly_ shouldn’t hurt! If it does, tell me and I will stop immediately.”

She placed her hands on either side of Shiro’s face, her fingertips resting on his temples, and said, “Just take a deep breath and relax.”

From Keith’s perspective, nothing seemed to happen. The two of them stood there in silence for about thirty seconds, Allura’s face screwed up in concentration and Shiro with his eyes closed and face looking passive.

Shiro winced, and Allura murmured, “Drop your shields, Shiro.”

Shiro took another deep breath and his face stilled again. Allura’s fingertips began to glow purple. Then Shiro’s eyes snapped open, and he began to scream.

Shiro staggered back, away from Allura’s hands, clutching his head as he screamed, but the purple glow remained on his face.

“Shiro!” Keith yelled, immediately reaching for him. He caught Shiro before he could back into the bookcase behind him and, not knowing what else to do, hugged him tightly. “Shiro!”

Coran said something that Keith didn’t fully register, and the purple glow vanished and Shiro’s scream petered out into harsh breathing.

“Shiro, are you okay?” Keith asked, feeling frantic.

Shiro didn’t reply, but instead turned in Keith’s arms and rested his head on Keith’s shoulder, breathing heavily. Keith stroked his back soothingly, and looked toward Allura with a glare.

“You said it wouldn’t hurt him!”

“It wasn’t supposed to!”

“Well then what the fuck happened?!” Keith demanded.

“I – I’m not sure,” she said, wringing her hands, “I think I detected… there’s something magical on him. It’s like a spell, but it’s not supposed to be noticed or messed with, and I – I think I triggered some sort of defense mechanism.”

Shiro lifted his head. His face was pale and drawn, but he said, “I’m okay, Keith. It… it was more shocking than painful, I promise. It was like having a police siren go off right next to my ear.”

Keith frowned at him, and Shiro gave him a reassuring smile. He didn’t look like he was in pain anymore. Keith released him from the hug and took half a step back, but still kept his hand on Shiro’s arm.

“What was that purple stuff?” Keith asked Allura.

“Purple stuff?” she echoed.

“That glow around Shiro’s head when he was screaming,” Keith explained, more than a little impatient with her.

“You saw a glow?” Coran asked, looking interested. Keith nodded, and Coran’s expression changed to one of excitement, “How interesting! The untrained can rarely, if ever, _see_ magic. Most tend to sense it as a change in temperature. What you saw was the spell reacting to Allura’s magic.”

“But what was it _doing_?” Keith asked.

Allura looked at her hands, a thoughtful expression on her face, “I believe there were two effects. The first was to prevent anyone from learning what the spell is. It went off the instant I detected it, so I couldn’t pick up any more details than that the spell is there.”

Shiro frowned, “So what’s the second effect?”

Allura grimaced, “It was supposed to alert the person who cast the spell that it was being tampered with.”

“That means that…” Keith said, a feeling of cold dread spreading down his back like ice water, “Whoever it was that put that spell on Shiro… they’ll be able to find him?”

Coran shook his head, “I’m not certain if the warning went through. I stopped the spell as quickly as I could, but… whoever first cast it is a more powerful mage than me, so we have to assume that it did.”

For moment, Keith probably qualified as legally dead, because he was certain that his heart stopped. He was sure his face had gone just as pale as Shiro’s, who looked as frightened as Keith felt.

Keith slid his hand into Shiro’s and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “I won’t let them take you again. No matter what,” he murmured softly. He looked back to Allura and Coran and said, “What should we do?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun DUN... what's going to happen now?!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Quetzalpapalotl for being a great sounding board!
> 
> [Come say hi to me on tumblr!](http://dreaming-shark.tumblr.com/)


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